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GIBSON PITCHES BASE BALL’S FIRST NO-HITTER!

BROOKLYN, May 23 (1858) – In a sport where the average team is collecting eleven hits per game so far in 1858, it would seem impossible for a team to go an entire game without getting even one. However, that is exactly what happened on Sunday afternoon inside the Manor House Baseball Grounds in Brooklyn, as Eckford pitcher Henry Gibson and the defense behind held Empire to nothing in the National Base Ball Organization’s first No-Hitter!

The entire team became eerily silent in the sixth inning after they had built a 10-0 lead, because they realized there was an outside chance that the seemingly impossible could happen. Once the impossible did indeed happen, it was chaos on the field as the players mobbed Gibson on the mound.

There were two Empire batters who reached against Gibson:

T 4TH: 1B Walter Banks reached via error by SS William Gilbers
T 9TH: C Arthur Patterson reached via Base on Balls

Only one Empire batter struck out – third baseman Percy Walsh – so the other 26 outs were all up to the fielders to make. There were fourteen ground-ball outs and twelve fly-ball outs, so today’s no-hitter was a genuine team effort.

To give one an idea of just how unlikely the event was, Empire came into the game with 150 hits and a .291 team Batting Average through fourteen games. On top of that, the previous low for hits in a game by any of the 48 teams in the N.B.B.O. so far this season was three. Nonetheless the no-hitter still happened, and over two thousand Eckford fans were in attendance to see a truly amazing piece of base ball history.