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There have been 66 no-hitters between 1948-1997. This comes out to about 1 ⅓ no-hitters per season. The longest drought was roughly four years, which happened twice. There was a gap from July 1950 to September 1954, and another from May 1960 to April 1964 with no no-hitters. The latter was broken with a record four no-hitters in 1964, by Jim Owens, Sonny Siebert, Bob Veale, and Gary Peters. That record was tied in 1989 with no-hitters from Bob Sebra, Shane Rawley, Rich Gale, and Bob Shirley. The 1989 group is surely an unlikely group.

A personal story...growing up (late eighties, early nineties) I had an uncle that was a TV repairman in a small town in Washington, and was heavy into TV technology. He had a TV dish big enough to fit several people in it, long before such things were easily commercially available. By using some controls in his house, he could maneuver the dish to receive TV broadcasts from just about anywhere in the US. I’m not totally sure how the information of where to point the antenna dish was distributed in the pre-internet age, but he had books that had it. So, when I visited, I could watch TV broadcasts from anywhere in the country.

I know exactly where I was on June 29, 1990. I was sitting at my uncle’s house watching a Dodgers/Cardinals game. I remember vividly because Fernando Valenzuela threw a no-hitter in that game. And what was so special about that no-hitter is that on the same day, Dave Stewart no-hit the Blue Jays in Toronto. The odds of two no-hitters being thrown on the same day are pretty low, but it has happened. But why would I tell you this story of my childhood?

Because believe it or not, this happened in the Replay League. On May 15, 1979, the Padres’ Mario Soto no-hit the Astros, while the Giants’ Juan Berenguer also no-hit the Reds. I haven’t done the math, but it seems like this has a low probability of happening within the short time that Replay League has existed. But that’s not the craziest thing.

The craziest thing is that three years later, it happened AGAIN! On August 9, 1982, there was another pair of no-hitters. The Giants’ Don Kirkwood no-hit the Astros, at the same time that the Padres’ John Matlack was no-hitting the Dodgers. Amazingly, it was the same two teams throwing the no-hitters, and even one of the victims was the same!

Other items of note - a few players have thrown two no-hitters. These players would be Gary Peters, Dennis Leonard, and Larry Christenson. Nobody has thrown three.

Four perfect games have been thrown. These would be by Early Wynn (1948), Jim O’Toole (1965), Bob Moose (1975), and Dennis Martinez (1977).