Johnny Vander Meer

Lore & Background

Born in Prospect Park, New Jersey, he moved with his family to Midland Park, New Jersey in 1918. He had an inauspicious start to his professional baseball career. He was signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent in 1933 and assigned to the Dayton Ducks, a minor league affiliate of the Reds. Dayton then sold his contract to the Scranton Miners, another minor league team. The Miners found his playing ability to be lacking, and the Reds purchased his contract from Scranton in 1934. From the Reds, he was sent to the Durham Bulls, where the Bulls manager and catcher, Johnny Gooch, was credited with helping control the wildness of Vander Meer's pitching. In 1936, he posted a record of 19 wins against six losses for Durham.

Reader's Guide

Vander Meer made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds on April 22, 1937, at the age of 22. He went 3–4 before being sent back to the minor leagues with the Syracuse Chiefs for most of the season when the Reds recalled him in September. The following year on June 11, 1938, Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the Boston Bees. Four days later against the Brooklyn Dodgers in what was the first night game ever held at Ebbets Field, he threw another no-hitter, becoming the first and thus far only player in major league history to throw two straight no-hitters.

He was nicknamed "The Dutch Master" due to his Dutch heritage, and after the no-hitters was also nicknamed "Two No-Hit". Vander Meer's performance earned him the role as the starting pitcher for the National League team in the 1938 All-Star game held at Cincinnati's Crosley Field. The American League team – having won four of the previous five All-Star games – was favored to win the game, but Vander Meer pitched three scoreless innings and allowed only one hit, as the National League went on to win 4–1.

He ended the season with a 15–10 record and a 3.12 earned run average for the fourth-place Reds. He might have won more games, but spent nearly a month in the hospital being treated for boils late in the season. Following the season, The Sporting News named Vander Meer their MLB Player of the Year for 1938. After his impressive rookie season, Vander Meer had a disappointing 1939 season, when he fell ill during spring training, and then suffered an injury when he slipped on a wet pitching mound in Pittsburgh.

He posted a 5–9 record and an earned run average of 4.67. Early in the 1940 season, he began to experience problems controlling the accuracy of his pitches. In June, the Reds released him back to the minor leagues where he played for the Indianapolis Indians and went 6–4. He returned to the major leagues in September and posted a 3–1 record, including a win for pitching 12 innings against Philadelphia on September 18, a win that clinched the National League pennant for the Reds.

Leading off the 13th inning, Vander Meer hit a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, stayed at third on an infield hit, then scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly. [Note: the Sacrifice Fly was not an official statistic in 1940, so the At Bat by Ival Goodman counted, as did his RBI].

Did You Know?

• He led the National League in strikeouts in 1943 with 174.
• He pitched a no-hitter for the Tulsa Oilers in 1952, 14 years after his consecutive no-hitters.