The Two Hour Post

A few weeks ago, David Schoenfield updated a previous article he had written about the best regular season pitching performances for all thirty MLB teams.  He picked Bobby Witt's one-hitter against the Kansas City Royals back on June 23rd, 1994 to represent the Oakland Athletics.  He also mentioned Sean Manaea's 2018 no-hitter, which led me to researching all of the no-hitters in Oakland Athletics history.

For the baseball trivia enthusiasts... there have been thirteen in franchise history... eight of which took place during their tenure in Oakland.  The autograph collector in me decided start a new project and collect one certified pack pulled or slab certified autograph of every pitcher to pitch a complete game no-hitter for the Oakland Athletics.

As of today, there are seven:  Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Mike Warren, Dave Stewart, Dallas Braden, Sean Manaea, and Mike Fiers.

Here's what I have so far... along with some facts about each game.

By the way, kudos to all of you who go the extra length and do research for your posts.  Normally the amount of research I do is limited to a few minutes or so, but I invested over two hours writing this post.  Enjoy.


1st No-Hitter:  Catfish Hunter  (May 8th, 1968)

1995 Jimmy Dean Autographs #NNO

• vs. Minnesota Twins at the Oakland Coliseum
• First perfect game in franchise history.
• Jim Pagliaroni was Hunter's catcher.
• This was the 2nd MLB no-hitter Pagliaroni caught.
• Catfish went 3 for 4 at the place and drove in 3 of the team's 4 runs.
• Faced two future hall of famers:  Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew.
• Struck out 11 batters including Killebrew three times.

About the Autograph:  This is one of three Catfish Hunter autographs that I own.  Unfortunately he passed away back in 1999, so the number of certified pack pulled autographs is limited.  This particular one was part of a mail-in offer that involved sending in two proof-of-purchases and $7.


2nd No-Hitter:  Vida Blue (September 21st, 1970)

1999 Fleer SI Greats of the Game Autograph #NNO

• vs. Minnesota Twins at the Oakland Coliseum
• Entering the game, the Twins were in first place in the AL West.
• The A's were in second place, 7.5 games behind the Twins.
• This was Blue's eighth career start.
• He was only twenty-one years old.
• Gene Tenace was Blue's catcher.
• Pitched a one-hit shutout eleven days earlier.
• Faced only 27 batters.
• Harmon Killebrew was the only Twins baserunner.
• Killebrew was also the only future hall of famer Blue faced.
• Struck out 9 batters including Killebrew twice.
• Pitched a combined no-hitter five years later.

About the Autograph:  Vida Blue's autographs are plentiful and affordable.  I picked up this autograph back in 2010 for $6 off of eBay, but I've seen these for half the price at local card shows.

4th No-Hitter:  Mike Warren (September 29th, 1983)

• vs. Chicago White Sox at the Oakland Coliseum
• Entering the game the White Sox were in first place in the AL West.
• This was Warren's ninth career start.
• He was twenty-two years old.
• Mike Heath was Warren's catcher.
• Warren only won four more MLB games after this no-hitter.
• Rickey Henderson scored the 1st run of the game.
• Faced two future hall of famers:  Carlton Fisk and Harold Baines.
• Struck out 5 batters including Fisk twice.

About the Autograph:  Warren doesn't have any certified pack pulled autographs available.  Heck, according to Beckett, he only has 22 different trading cards.  I'm hoping to one day pick up a PSA slabbed autograph of one of his 1984 rookie cards.

5th No-Hitter:  Dave Stewart (June 29th, 1990)

2003 UD Sweet Spot Classic Greats Signature #CG-DST

• vs. Toronto Blue Jays at the SkyDome
• Entering this game the Blue Jays were in second place in the AL East.
• The A's were in first place in the AL West and had the AL's best record.
• Struck out 12 batters and walked 3.
• Walked the first two batters of the game.
• Terry Steinbach was Stew's catcher.
• This was the first of two no-hitters caught for Steinbach.
• The Hendersons (Dave and Rickey) each hit a home run to support Stewart.
• Stew had lost four of his previous five starts and had given up 20 earned runs.

About the Autograph:  I've enjoyed picking up affordable UD Sweet Spot Signatures ever since I returned to the hobby back in the late 2000's.  They often get a bad rep due to fading signatures, but as you can see... not all of them fade.

6th No-Hitter:  Dallas Braden (May 9th, 2010)

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #164

• vs. Tampa Bay Rays at the Oakland Coliseum
• The Rays entered this game with the best record in baseball.
• The Rays had rocked Braden two weeks earlier (8 hits, 3 walks, 6 earned runs in 4 innings)
• The A's were one game over .500 and second in the AL West.
• 2nd perfect game in franchise history.
• Struck out 6 batters.
• Landon Powell was Braden's catcher.
• Occurred on Mother's Day with his grandmother in attendance.
• Braden's grandmother took care of him after his mother passed away.

About the Autograph:  I've made it very clear that I'm not a fan of sticker-graphs.  But sometimes you have to take what you can get.  I don't think I've ever seen an on-card, pack pulled signature of his.

7th No-Hitter:  Sean Manaea (April 21st, 2018)

2019 Topps Clearly Authentic Black Autographs #CAA-SM

• vs. Boston Red Sox at the Oakland Coliseum
• The Red Sox entered the game with the best record in baseball (17-2).
• Entering this game the Red Sox averaged 6+ runs and 10+ hits per game.
• The Red Sox had collected 10+ hits seven games in a row prior to this game.
• The A's were 9-11 and fourth in the AL West.
• Manaea entered the game with a 2-2 record with an amazing 1.23 earned run average.
• Struck out 10 batters.  Chris Sale did too.
• Marcus Semien scored all 3 runs for the A's and hit a home run.
• Jonathan Lucroy was Manaea's catcher.
• Today is the 2 year anniversary of Manaea's no-hitter.

About the Autograph:  This is the most recent addition to this project.  The day I read Schoenfield's article, I went to eBay and found this card.  The seller accepted my $6 offer.  Manaea struggled during Spring Training, but I'm looking forward to seeing him take his place on the mound when the season starts.

8th No-Hitter:  Mike Fiers (May 7th, 2019)

• vs. Cincinnati Reds at the Oakland Coliseum
• Both teams entered this game in last place in their divisions.
• Fiers had a 2-3 record with a 6.81 ERA entering this game.
• He had given up 23 earned runs and lasted only 22 innings during his last five starts.
• Struck out 6 batters.
• 2nd no-hitter of his career.
• Both no-hitters were Interleague games.
• He has two of the seven Interleague no-hitters in MLB history.
• Josh Phegley was Fiers' catcher.
• Jurickson Profar drove in both of the A's runs with a double and a home run.

About the Autograph:  Fiers has a Topps Now autograph and at least one Topps Archives buyback signature featuring him in an Athletics jersey.  However... I'm not willing to spend more than $6 or $7 for one.  So the waiting game begins.

Some of you may have noticed that I skipped over the 3rd no-hitter in Oakland A's history.  That one took place on September 28th, 1975.  Vida Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad, and Rollie Fingers pitched a combined no-hitter against the California Angels on the final day of the regular season.

As of right now, I'm not including this one as part of the project, because I don't think Abbott or Lindblad have any certified pack pulled autographs available.  Maybe one day, I'll look for certified slabbed signatures of these two for my collection, but they aren't a priority.

Well that's it for today.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Unsolved Mysteries

Two weeks ago, I stumbled across a pair of cards that I had never seen before over on Padrographs; Abner to Zimmer.  By now I'm sure most of you are familiar with his daily giveaways.  If not, forget about reading this post.  Click the link above and check it out.

If you're afraid to click the link, then I'll break it down for you.  The premise is simple.  He posts nine (sometimes more) cards every morning that are available for you to claim.  He offers up a variety of cards ranging from base to memorabilia cards to inserts to autographs.  Just remember... the early bird gets the worm.

There's always at least one or two cards that catch my attention, but I already owe Rod cards... so I try not to claim things unless it's something I really, really, really want.

In this case, I wanted a pair of Ichiro and Satchel Paige Baseball Hall of Fame trading cards:

As you can see... Rod threw in five extras.  The front of each card features the Baseball Hall of Fame logo, a topic, the player's name, their position, and a photograph, while the back offers a pair of interesting facts and a summary on the topic depicted on the front.

Here's a closer look at the Satchel Paige card:

Even though I do enjoy seeing statistics on the backs of my cards... I've got to admit... I love these, because there's so much interesting baseball trivia crammed onto each card.

The question is... 

What the heck are they?  Where can you buy them?  How were they distributed?  When were they distributed?

Please comment down below if you're able to help me solve this mystery.  I know that Rod manages a book store and five of these cards feature children's books on the back, so maybe they're part of an educational program.  

The other mystery involves a two card PWE sent by Jeremy over at Topps Cards That Never Were.

The first card is this "baby shark" 2020 Donruss parallel of Matt Olson.  Nothing mysterious about this card other than the fact that Panini decided to use emoji's as part of their borders this year.

However the next card and the note attached was sort of a head-scratcher:

Mad Bum is a guy I enjoy rooting for... since he's a fellow southpaw.  But I'm not sure about the Giants binder he's referring to in his note.

Hey Jeremy...

Is this in response to a comment I left on your blog or something I wrote about in a post?

Whatever it is... both cards are much appreciated.  And Rod... thank you so much for these awesome Baseball Hall of Fame trading cards.

I'm really hoping that either or both of these mysteries can be solved.

Happy Monday and sayonara!