RetroSimba

Early in the 1934 season, if any pitcher looked like a candidate to get 30 wins, it was Lon Warneke, not Dizzy Dean.

A Chicago Cubs right-hander, Warneke pitched a one-hitter on Opening Day versus the Reds and followed that with another one-hitter in his next start against Dean and the Cardinals.

Warneke is the only big-league pitcher to follow a one-hitter on Opening Day with another one-hitter in his second start.

Humming along

A native of Mount Ida, Arkansas, called the quartz crystal capital of the world, Warneke was 19 when he became a professional pitcher in 1928. His debut with the Cubs came in relief against the Cardinals at St. Louis in April 1930. Boxscore

Two years later, Warneke, 23, had a breakout season, leading the National League in wins (22) and ERA (2.37) for the 1932 pennant winners.

J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch nicknamed him “The Arkansas Hummingbird” because of a darting fastball. Stockton’s colleague, Bob Broeg, described Warneke as “a scarecrow with a chaw of tobacco stuck in a straw cheek” and with “shoulders as wide, and as thin, as a coat-hanger.”

“I kept calm with my chew of tobacco,” Warneke told the newspaper. “I always had a chew of tobacco in my mouth. Being without the chew was like being without my glove.”

Reds rooters

In 1933, Warneke was 18-13 overall but 0-5 against the Reds. Nonetheless, he got the starting assignment in the Cubs’ 1934 season opener at Cincinnati.

Facing a lineup with ex-Cardinals Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey and Bob O’Farrell, Warneke “had everything _ fast ones, curves, some change of pace and control,” the Dayton Daily News noted. “He made the ball behave just as he wanted it to _ and that means he made the batters behave in the same way.”

After holding the Reds hitless through six innings, the Crosley Field spectators “adopted Warneke as their hero for the afternoon” and rooted for the pitcher to complete a no-hitter, the Chicago Tribune reported.

When Adam Comorosky broke the spell with a one-out single to center in the ninth, the fans booed.

Warneke retired the last two batters, completing the one-hit shutout and securing the 6-0 win. He struck out 13, the only time in his 15 years in the majors that he fanned more than nine in a game. His teammates hoisted him to their shoulders and carried him off the field, bringing cheers from the crowd.

“No team in baseball could have beaten Lon this afternoon,” Reds player-manager Bob O’Farrell told The Cincinnati Post. “He kept that curveball on the outside corner. His control was remarkable. He could have thrown the ball through a knothole, so true was he aiming.” Boxscore

Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News predicted, “You will have to go a long way in this budding season to see a game as nearly flawlessly pitched as Warneke’s.”

Five days later, though, Warneke pitched another one-hitter.

One and done

On April 22, 1934, a Sunday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Warneke was matched against Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean. On Opening Day, Dean beat the Pirates, holding them to a run in nine innings, but the Cardinals hadn’t won since.

It turned out to be no contest. The Cubs scored four in the first, two in the second and Dean was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the third.

Though Warneke walked six, he allowed just one hit _ a Rip Collins double in the fifth. Warneke, who lashed two singles, had twice as many hits as he allowed the Cardinals. The Cubs won, 15-2. Boxscore

Warneke’s back-to-back one-hitters occurred four years before the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer became the only big-league pitcher to toss consecutive no-hitters.

“The big thing with me was get the wins and not worry about how many hits I gave up,” Warneke said to the Post-Dispatch.

One-hitter wonders

Others who have pitched and won Opening Day one-hitters include Herb Pennock of the 1915 Athletics, Jesse Petty of the 1926 Dodgers and Bob Lemon of the 1953 Indians. In 2015, Sonny Gray (eight innings) and Evan Scribner (one inning) combined on an Opening Day one-hitter for the Athletics. None of those pitchers followed with a one-hitter in his second start.

Bob Feller of the 1940 Indians pitched the only Opening Day no-hitter but he was shelled for six runs in three innings in his second start.

Like Warneke, others have pitched one-hitters in consecutive starts, though none did so in his first two appearances of a season. Those who joined Warneke in pitching back-to-back one-hitters are Rube Marquard (1911 Giants), Mort Cooper (1943 Cardinals), Whitey Ford (1955 Yankees), Sam McDowell (1966 Indians), Dave Stieb (1988 Blue Jays) and R.A. Dickey (2012 Mets).

In 1923, Howard Ehmke of the Red Sox pitched a no-hitter on Sept. 7 and followed with a one-hitter four days later. In consecutive September starts in 1925, Dazzy Vance of the Dodgers had a one-hitter and a no-hitter.

Grover Cleveland Alexander had four one-hitters for the 1915 Phillies but never pitched a no-hitter in 20 years in the majors.

The pitchers with the most career one-hitters are Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan. Each had 12.

Pitcher to arbiter

Warneke was 22-10 for the 1934 Cubs. Dizzy Dean, 1-2 with a 7.17 ERA after his first four starts, finished 30-7 for the league champion Cardinals and got two more wins in the 1934 World Series.

The next year, when the Cubs claimed the pennant, Warneke won 20, plus two more in the 1935 World Series.

He was traded to the Cardinals in October 1936 (Rip Collins was one of the players the Cubs got in return) and pitched a no-hitter against the reigning World Series champion Reds in 1941.

Warneke was 83-49 for the Cardinals and 192-121 overall in the majors.

He was a National League umpire from 1949-55 and then became a county judge in Arkansas.

(Updated July 30, 2024)

In 12 seasons in the majors, Sandy Koufax made just one Opening Day start for the Dodgers. It came on April 14, 1964, against the Cardinals.

Koufax, 28, was considered to be at the top of his game then, coming off a dominant season. The left-hander won both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in 1963. He was 25-5 that season, including 4-0 versus the Cardinals, and led the majors in wins, ERA (1.88), shutouts (11) and strikeouts (306). Koufax also won Games 1 and 4 of the 1963 World Series, a Dodgers sweep of the Yankees.

Yet, as he approached an Opening Day start for the first time, Koufax admitted he was nervous. “Sure I feel it,” he said to columnist John Hall of the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been getting worked up for days. It’s a thrill … I always get excited before every start, but the first game of the season is something extra.”

As it turned out, the prominence of the assignment wasn’t the sole reason for the jitters. Koufax’s pitching arm didn’t feel right.

Profit share

During contract negotiations for the 1964 season, Koufax proposed a “formula he worked out whereby he would participate in gate receipts on nights he worked,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag noted, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley “made it clear he wanted employees only, not shareholders.”

Koufax met with his former teammate, Jackie Robinson, who advised the pitcher to press the Dodgers for a share of ticket revenue. “He made a difference of 10,000 to 15,000 in attendance a game near the end of the (1963) season when he pitched,” Robinson told The Sporting News.

O’Malley wouldn’t budge in his opposition to the idea. He told Durslag that “the Hollywood and Las Vegas influence … tend to give people in our business delusions of grandeur. Our boys hear talk in terms of residuals, capital gains, percentages and pieces of the action, and they are misled into applying these patterns to baseball.” 

On the day before the Dodgers’ team plane headed to spring training at Vero Beach, Fla., Koufax agreed to a contract of $70,000 for 1964, a doubling of the $35,000 salary he got in 1963, The Sporting News reported.

Ready or not

In his 1964 Florida spring training outings, Koufax threw mostly slow curves and changeups, but the Dodgers said it was nothing to worry about _ he was working on making his off-speed pitches better, The Sporting News reported.

Privately, Koufax confided his left arm was hurting, according to author Jane Leavy in her book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.”

On April 10, 1964, four days before the season opener, Koufax was feted at the Los Angeles baseball writers banquet at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard. An overflow crowd of 1,500 attended the $20-a-plate dinner and was treated to entertainment from Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Nancy Wilson and emcee Phil Silvers.

The next night, Koufax started against the Angels in an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium and looked terrific in his two-inning tune-up, striking out five and allowing only an infield hit.

Good reads

Noting that Koufax “probably set a major-league record by reading more books in one season than any pitcher in history,” the Los Angeles Times asked him on the eve of the season opener to compile a list of books he’d recommend for teens.

Under the category of modern novels, Koufax suggested “Lord of the Flies” (William Golding), “Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger), “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), “A Separate Peace” (John Knowles), “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov), “The Ugly American” (William Lederer and Eugene Burdick), “On the Beach” (Nevil Shute), “Jamie” (Jack Bennett), “Fail-Safe” (Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler) and “A Very Small Remnant” (Michael Straight).

A sampling of some of Koufax’s other recommendations included:

_ Adventures: “Annapurna” (Maurice Herzog), “Deliver Us From Evil” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Edge of Tomorrow” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Man Who Never Was” (Ewen Montagu).

_ Biographies: “Portrait of Myself” (Margaret Bourke-White), “The Diary of a Young Girl” (Anne Frank), “Surgeon” (Wilfred C. Heinz).

_ Histories: “Hiroshima” (John Hersey), “Profiles in Courage” (John F. Kennedy).

_ Humor: “The Education of Hyman Kaplan (Leonard Q. Ross), “Platypus At Large: A Nonsense Book of World Politics” (Emery Kelen).

_ Observation: “The Craft of Intelligence” (Allen Dulles), “Romance of Philosophy” (Jacques Choron), “The Fire Next Time” (James Baldwin).

_ Science: “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” (Lincoln Barnett), “Gods, Graves and Scholars” (C.W. Ceram).

Only four sports books made Koufax’s list: “The Four-Minute Mile” (Roger Bannister), “Basketball Is My Life” (Bob Cousy and Al Hirshberg), “Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero” (Frank Graham) and “Playing For Life” (Bill Talbert and John Sharnik).

Same Sandy

The book on Koufax was he looked good in pitching a six-hit shutout in a 4-0 Opening Day victory at Dodger Stadium. All six Cardinals hits were singles and only one Cardinal base runner advanced as far as second base. Boxscore

Bill White had two of the hits. For his career, White batted .176 versus Koufax. “You weren’t afraid of him, but Sandy, you just couldn’t handle him at all,” White told Yankees Magazine. “You could se the ball; you just couldn’t hit it.”

Koufax became the first Dodger to pitch an Opening Day shutout since Whit Wyatt did it in 1940 against the Braves at Boston. Boxscore

Cardinals team captain Ken Boyer told the Post-Dispatch, “Sandy’s curve got better as he went along. If you’re going to beat him, you’re going to have to do it in the early innings.”

Koufax and Cardinals starter Ernie Broglio were matched in a scoreless duel until Ron Fairly drove in Willie Davis with a single in the sixth. “That was the turning point,” Broglio told the Los Angeles Times. “You give Koufax a run and he gets pretty tough.”

Old arm

A week later, in the Cardinals’ home opener, Koufax gave up a three-run home run to Charlie James and departed after pitching one inning.

“He was slow,” Boyer told the Post-Dispatch. “It wasn’t too hard to figure something might be wrong with him.” Boxscore

Koufax was examined by Cardinals physician Dr. I.C. Middleman, who determined the pitcher had “inflammation of the elbow” and “a slight muscle tear” in his left forearm, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Middleman informed the newspaper that Koufax told him his arm had been hurting since spring training but he hadn’t mentioned it to the Dodgers.

Koufax missed his next three starts, took three cortisone shots and returned to the rotation on May 4. He found his groove in June (5-0 record) and July (5-1).

On Aug. 16, Koufax again shut out the Cardinals, striking out 13, and then was shut down for the rest of the season after being diagnosed with an arthritic left elbow. Boxscore

“Arthritis is an acute inflammation of a joint usually associated with old age,” Jane Leavy wrote. “Koufax’s elbow was old even if he wasn’t … The cartilage in his elbow was breaking down.”

Even with the ailments, Koufax managed to post a 19-5 record, with seven shutouts, and 1.74 ERA in 28 starts in 1964. He pitched two more seasons, winning the Cy Young Award both years, before calling it quits at 30.

Picture this: You’re a rookie starting pitcher from a hamlet in Iowa, making your big-league debut on the road against the reigning World Series champions. The opposing starter is a future Hall of Famer who rarely has allowed a run during a winning streak on his way to a Cy Young Award.

That’s the challenge Mets right-hander Jim McAndrew faced when he got the start in his first major-league game against Bob Gibson and the 1968 Cardinals.

The degree of difficulty McAndrew faced hardly lessened. In his first four starts, McAndrew allowed six runs total, but the Mets scored none _ and he lost all four.

McAndrew finally got his first win by pitching a shutout, beating the Cardinals and their other future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton.

A hard-luck hurler, McAndrew nearly quit when he was in the minors but Whitey Herzog convinced him to stay. McAndrew had one winning season in seven years in the majors, but played for two National League pennant winners and a World Series champion.

Help from Herzog

McAndrew grew up on his parents’ 750-acre farm in Lost Nation, Iowa, and developed into a top prep ballplayer. Cardinals scout Ken Blackman showed interest but advised McAndrew he’d be better off playing college baseball, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

A psychology major, McAndrew pitched for the University of Iowa. On the recommendation of their St. Louis-based scout, Charlie Frey, the Mets took him in the 11th round of the 1965 amateur draft. (Their 12th-round pick was another right-hander, Nolan Ryan.)

After producing 10 wins and 1.47 ERA for a Class AA club managed by St. Louisan Roy Sievers in 1967, McAndrew was dejected when the Mets didn’t put him on their 40-man big-league winter roster. He thought about quitting and going to graduate school. “I had confidence in myself but nobody else seemed to,” McAndrew recalled to Newsday.

When Mets director of player development Whitey Herzog learned McAndrew was thinking of leaving, he talked him out of it. McAndrew was assigned to Class AAA Jacksonville in 1968, but manager Clyde McCullough moved him to the bullpen. “Whitey told McCullough to put McAndrew back into the starting rotation,” Newsday reported.

In July 1968, when Nolan Ryan reported for military duty, the Mets called up McAndrew to replace him.

The heat is on

On a sweltering Sunday, July 21, 1968, McAndrew made his debut against Bob Gibson and the Cardinals at Busch Memorial Stadium. “Some people thought it was throwing a lamb to a lion.” Newsday noted.

Instead, “for five innings he matched zeroes with Gibson, who is in the midst of one of the hottest streaks in all baseball history,” the New York Times reported.

Then, in the Cardinals’ half of the sixth, Bobby Tolan drove a pitch to right-center. Outfielders Cleon Jones and Larry Stahl pursued it, thinking a catch could be made, but the ball hit against the wall. Neither Jones nor Stahl was in position to get the carom and the ball got between them and rolled away. Tolan circled the bases with an inside-the-park home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

After the inning, McAndrew left the game because the searing 94-degree heat got to him more than the Cardinals batters did. “He needed oxygen between innings,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 

The Cardinals added a run in the eighth and won, 2-0. Gibson completed his seventh shutout of the season, stretching his win streak to 10 and improving his career mark against the Mets to 20-3. He threw 144 pitches and struck out 13.

McAndrew told the New York Daily News he felt good about how he pitched, “but I didn’t win, and that’s what I’m supposed to do.” Boxscore

Runs are scarce

In his next three starts, McAndrew and the Mets lost 2-0 to the Dodgers, 1-0 to the Giants and 1-0 to the Astros, giving him an 0-4 record. The Mets finally scored in his fifth start, but McAndrew got shelled and lost to the Giants, a 13-3 final.

McAndrew brought an 0-5 record and 3.38 ERA into his next start, a return to St. Louis against Steve Carlton on Aug. 26.

The game was scoreless in the seventh when Tim McCarver lined a pitch deep to left. “McCarver would have had a three-base hit, two bases, at least,” Mets manager Gil Hodges said to the Post-Dispatch, but Cleon Jones made a diving catch. “Maybe the best play we’ve had in the outfield all year,” Hodges said.

The importance of the play was underlined when the next batter, Mike Shannon, singled. Instead of driving in a run, it was a harmless hit because McAndrew worked out of the inning unscathed. “I don’t win it if Cleon doesn’t get that one,” McAndrew told the New York Daily News.

The Mets manufactured the run McAndrew needed against Carlton in the eighth. Tommie Agee singled, moved to second on a Phil Linz sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a Cleon Jones sacrifice fly.

Given the 1-0 lead, McAndrew did the rest, retiring the Cardinals in order in the eighth and ninth to secure the shutout and his first win.

Recalling how Whitey Herzog stuck with him earlier in the year, McAndrew said to Newsday, “I attribute my being here tonight to him.” Boxscore

Five nights later, in a rematch at New York, Carlton and Joe Hoerner combined on a shutout and beat McAndrew and the Mets, 2-0. Boxscore

In three starts against the 1968 Cardinals, McAndrew allowed three runs in 23 innings and was 1-2.

Fit for a king

After the 1968 season, the Mets offered the Reds Dick Selma, Larry Stahl and their choice of either McAndrew, Gary Gentry or Steve Renko for Vada Pinson and Hal McRae, according to columnist Dick Young, but Pinson went to the Cardinals for Bobby Tolan and Wayne Granger.

The Mets also offered McAndrew to the Expos for Donn Clendenon but were turned down, The Sporting News reported. (Later, in June 1969, the Mets acquired Clendenon for a package of players and he was a key run producer for them.)

McAndrew stayed with the Mets in 1969 and contributed to their championship season. On a staff with Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman, McAndrew pitched in 27 games, including 21 starts, and was 6-7. One of those wins was a three-hitter against the Cardinals on June 30. Boxscore

The Mets won four of five against the Orioles in the 1969 World Series, but McAndrew didn’t pitch in any of the games.

“He was the team intellectual, the quiet one of the clubhouse, the loner,” Joseph Durso wrote in the New York Times. “On the field, he was even more isolated than that _ the sixth man in a five-man rotation, the hard-luck pitcher nobody scored any runs for, the trade bait whenever deals were discussed.”

To the people of his hometown, though, McAndrew was someone special. On Nov. 1, 1969, residents of Lost Nation held a parade and dinner in McAndrew’s honor. “McAndrew received a number of gifts, including a plaque from Lost Nation mayor Shorty Ales noting Jim’s inspiration for the youth of the community, and a specially designed gold ring,” the Quad-City Times reported.

“Everyone has treated me just like a king,” McAndrew said to the newspaper.

Ups and downs

In 1971, McAndrew twice was injured in on-field accidents. At spring training, he was running in the outfield when a line drive off the bat of teammate Art Shamsky struck him in the jaw. “I lost four teeth,” McAndrew told the Post-Dispatch.

In July that year, during batting practice at Houston, McAndrew was fielding balls hit to the outfield and pitcher Gary Gentry was shagging tosses from coach Rube Walker. While chasing a liner, McAndrew collided with Gentry. McAndrew needed 20 stitches and plastic surgery for a wound over his right ear. Gentry took 15 stitches for facial cuts.

McAndrew had his best season in 1972, finishing 11-8 with a 2.80 ERA. Two of the wins were against the Cardinals, including his first complete game in two years. Boxscore

“He’s sneaky fast,” Mets catcher Duffy Dyer told Newsday. “He’s not a strikeout pitcher and there’s a lot of first-ball swinging.”

The Mets were National League champions in 1973, but McAndrew wasn’t much of a factor. He was 3-8 and had no wins after May 13. The Mets didn’t use him in any of the seven World Series games against the champion Athletics.

Afterward, the Cardinals offered to trade Joe Torre to the Mets for Jerry Koosman. The Mets countered with a package that included McAndrew, but the Cardinals said no. The Mets then sent McAndrew to the Padres. He pitched his final season in the majors with them in 1974.

McAndrew had a career mark of 37-53, including 6-6 versus the Cardinals.

In 1989, his son, pitcher Jamie McAndrew, was taken by the Dodgers in the first round of the 1989 amateur draft. He got to the big leagues with the Brewers in 1995. The catcher in his debut game was Mike Matheny. Boxscore