MLB: 5 Most Unique Baseball Moments on July 4

1983: Dave Righetti’s No-Hitter

On Independence Day in 1983, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox went at it in baseball’s oldest and most famous rivalry. The starting pitchers that day were John Tudor for the Red Sox and Dave Righetti for the Yankees

Righetti started off strong, striking out two of the first three hitters he faced. However, he did walk Jim Rice, eliminating any chance for a perfect game. To that point in the season, Righetti was 9-3 and was two years removed from his American League Rookie of the Year award. Through three hitless innings, Righetti had struck out seven.

Righetti got through six innings pitched without much trouble, but thoughts of his no-hitter through six innings pitched against Boston one year earlier had to be creeping in. He lost that no-hitter in the seventh.

One of the most amusing parts of the game was it was only after the last out was recorded did home plate umpire Steve Palermo realize there was a no-hitter; he simply thought the crowd was the giving the pitcher a nice round of applause because he was having a good game. He said in an interview that around the seventh or eighth inning he thought “That’s nice. They’re giving him a nice round of applause. The kid didn’t get selected to the All-Star Game and these people are kind of sending him off after the first half of the season with good thoughts.”

With the no-hitter intact through 8.2 innings, Wade Boggs came up to the plate as the last hope. “It was great,” Righetti said after the game. “I picked up the rosin on the mound and said, ‘He’s the best hitter in the league in that situation because he is tough to strike out. That’s the way I want it.'”

He did strike out Boggs, and Righetti had himself a 132-pitch no hitter, the first against Boston since 1968, which made the moment all the sweeter for both Yankees fans and Righetti.

Next: #4: A 19-Inning Marathon