In today’s episode of Baseball Shorts, we pay attention to a no-hitter that wasn’t celebrated after the final out as it was only ruled a nono after the end of the game.
On May 6, 1917, a scoring change by a panel of sportswriters after the game turned the game into a no-hitter. The panel reversed the first-inning hit into an error, hours after the game. As a result, Bob Groom of the Browns no-hit the White Sox, 4-0 and the Chicago Tribune’s headline read, “Koob Tames Sox in One Hit Game, 1-0.
As a coincidence, Groom’s teammate, Ernie Koob also no-hit the White Sox or Pale Hose as they were also called, the previous day. To date, Koob and Groom are the only teammates to pitch no-hitters on consecutive days.
As often happens, it is not always the greatest pitchers that pitch a no-hitter. One can say so in the case of Groom. In a ten year career, he played for four different clubs: Washington Senators (1909-1913), St. Louis Terriers (Federal League, 1914-1915), St. Louis Browns (1916-1917), and the Cleveland Indians (1918). In ten years, he recorded 119 wins and 150 losses though his ERA wasn’t all that shabby (3.10).
After his last season with the Indians, Groom did not return to baseball at all, not even to the minors.
