Near-Perfect Game

The chances of a no-hitter are very slim; of some 50,000 major league games, only 86 have been no-hitters. The "perfect game"--i.e., a no-hitter with no batter reaching base on a walk or error--has not been achieved in the major leagues since 1922.* Last week Brooklyn Dodger Pitcher Carl Erskine missed the perfect game by the scant margin of a base on balls to--of all people--Pitcher Willie Ramsdell, weakest hitter of the Chicago Cubs.

At the time--the third inning, with rain threatening--no one thought much of Erskine's chances for a no-hitter, least of all Brooklyn's Manager Charley Dressen. With a glance at the lowering skies, Dressen hollered at Erskine: "Hurry up and get this guy out!" Erskine threw four hurried pitches, all fast balls, all wide of the plate, and Ramsdell walked. Moments later the rain came and held up play for 44 minutes. Pitcher Erskine, 25, spent the time in a clubhouse bridge game.

By the fifth inning, the 12,732 fans at Ebbets Field began buzzing about the possibility of seeing a no-hitter. Opening the eighth, with six more outs to go, Erskine racked up his only strikeout of the day--three straight strikes burned past the Cubs' hard-hitting (.294) First Baseman Dee Fondy. By then, the excited fans were cheering every strike, groaning at the crack of bat on ball.

In the ninth, with one out and two to go, Chicago Manager Phil Cavarretta came up as a pinch hitter. He blasted a long ball into the rightfield stands, and the crowd sighed in relief as it went foul. Cavarretta went out on an easy fly to centerfield. The final batter worked Erskine to a full 3-ball, 2-strike count before meekly grounding out. First-Base Umpire Bill Stewart had hardly made his dramatic thumb-up "out" gesture before the whole Dodger team poured out from diamond and dugout to crowd around grinning Carl Erskine and cheer the most sparkling pitching performance Ebbets Field had ever seen.

* When the Chicago White Sox's Righthander Charles Robertson, pitching against the Detroit Tigers, turned the trick, won 2-0.

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