Boston Red Sox: A look at the top no-hitters in franchise history
By Rick McNair
Being perfect is something special and in baseball, it is exceptionally rare – a perfect game. When your name is Cy Young you may just expect that. Young tossed three no-hitters in his career and he also recorded the first perfect game in the American League or modern era and the only regular season one for the Boston Red Sox or as they were known – Americans.
Young’s effort was on May 5th of 1904 against the Philadelphia Athletics and took place in Boston at the Huntington Avenue Grounds since Fenway Park was years away from being built. There are two person’s usually associated with a no-hitter besides the pitcher – the catcher and the home plate umpire.
The catcher for the defending World Champion’s was Lou Criger and the umpire was Bob Caruthers. Criger, who was the starting catcher in the Red Sox first ever game, was a light hitter (career .221) who was noted as Young’s personal catcher by catching most of Young’s victories (and losses).
Caruthers had a career prior to umpiring – as a well-respected and productive pitchers who compiled a 218-99 record that also included two 40 win seasons – each with a different team. After a ten year MLB career and a few seasons in the minors Caruthers moved into an umpire slot since it was not unusual to have a former player latch on to that position with minimal training.
Young recorded eight strikeouts in the 3-0 victory and Criger was also credited with a hit and RBI to help his battery mate. The defeat went to Rube Waddell, who won 25 games that season while notching a record 349 strikeouts. Young finished the year with 26 wins and a league leading 10 shutouts.