RetroSimba

Unconcerned about potential wear and tear on his arm, a Cardinals starter pitched a nine-inning no-hitter in a spring training exhibition.

Using a knuckleball, curve and slider, Murry Dickson became the second major-league pitcher to produce a nine-inning no-hitter in a spring training game. He baffled the Yankees in a 7-0 Cardinals victory on March 30, 1948, before 1,948 at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Dickson received slugging support from Stan Musial (three-run inside-the-park home run) and Red Schoendienst (three-run double).

Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer told The Sporting News he had intended to pitch Dickson for six innings. After Dickson pitched a hitless seventh, Dyer gave his approval for Dickson to pitch the eighth and the ninth.

Dyer received criticism for stretching Dickson in an exhibition game. National League president Ford Frick looked into the matter and was told by Dickson he wanted to test his arm by pitching nine innings.

“From all I hear, it wasn’t a hard game he had to work,” Frick said. “It was a warm day, he didn’t have to bear down too much and apparently he wasn’t trying for a no-hitter.”

(Cy Blanton of the Pirates pitched the first nine-inning no-hitter in a spring training exhibition. It occurred on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, at New Orleans, against the Indians. Pirates manager Pie Traynor later told The Sporting News he regretted allowing Blanton to go the distance because Blanton soon lost his effectiveness. After an 11-7 record for the 1938 Pirates, Blanton was 2-3 for the 1939 Pirates.)

Dickson struck out six, hit a batter and walked five (including Joe DiMaggio twice). He faced 30 batters. The Yankees hit into three double plays and stranded three.

DiMaggio smoked a line drive “straight at shortstop Tommy Glaviano” for the hardest-hit out, according to the Associated Press. DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto were two future Hall of Fame players in the Yankees lineup that day.

In the ninth, Dickson got Lonny Frey to fly out to center and Ed Stewart to line out to second before Johnny Lindell flied out to center for the final out.

Dan Hall, covering the game for the St. Petersburg Times, wrote, “Dickson’s curve was breaking beautifully and he used a slider and a knuckleball delivery to cross up the Yankees sluggers.”

Del Wilber caught the first five innings for the Cardinals and Del Rice caught the last four. Asked by The Sporting News about Dickson’s knuckleball, Wilber replied, “Dickson really puts a lot of speed on it and the ball is tough to catch … (It)  wobbles all over the place.”

Facing sore-armed Bill Bevens, the Cardinals scored all seven runs in the first inning. After Schoendienst walked and Erv Dusak singled, Musial “drove a pitch to the 450-foot sign in the right-center field corner and raced around the paths for an inside-the-park home run,” reported the St. Petersburg Times.

Dickson drove in the fourth run on a bases-loaded walk and Schoendienst, batting for the second time in the inning, followed with a bases-clearing double.

The United Press wire service wrote, “For Bevens, the game may have marked the end of a Yankees career that has been nothing but one bad break after another.”

Five months earlier, on Oct. 3, 1947, Bevens was one out away from pitching the first no-hitter in World Series history. In Game 4 at Brooklyn, Bevens held the Dodgers hitless for 8.2 innings and was protecting a 2-1 Yankees lead. The Dodgers had two runners on base _ the ninth and 10th walks given by Bevens _ when Cookie Lavagetto, batting for Eddie Stanky, doubled both home, lifting the Dodgers to a 3-2 victory. Boxscore

(Bevens, 31, didn’t fully recover from the arm ailment that hampered him in that exhibition game against the Cardinals. He never again appeared in the major leagues after the 1947 World Series, though he did pitch in the minors until 1952, including a stint in the Cardinals’ organization in 1949 for Houston, where his manager was Del Wilber.)

Meanwhile, Dickson’s stock rose after his spring training no-hitter. United Press wrote, “The nigh-perfect performance virtually assured Dickson of ranking as the ace of the Cardinals’ staff.”

Dickson earned the Opening Day start and pitched a complete-game shutout in the Cardinals’ 4-0 triumph over the Reds at St. Louis on April 20, 1948. Boxscore

The hot start wasn’t sustainable. Dickson went 1-5 in July, finished 12-16 with a 4.14 ERA and was sent to the Pirates after the season.