John Samuel Vander Meer (November 2, 1914 – October 6, 1997) was an American professional

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player. He played in

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as a left-handed

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, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds where he became the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw two consecutive no-hitters, and was a member of the

1940 World Series The 1940 World Series matched the Cincinnati Reds against the Detroit Tigers, with the Reds winning a closely contested seven-game series. The victory secured the Reds the second championship in their franchise history and came 21 years after th ...

winning team. After the impressive start to his major league career, he experienced problems controlling the accuracy of his pitching, and his later career was marked by inconsistent performances.

Baseball career

Born in Prospect Park, New Jersey, he moved with his family to

Midland Park, New Jersey Midland Park is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 7,128,professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

career. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur

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in 1933 and assigned to the Dayton Ducks. Dayton then sold his contract to a

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minor league affiliate, the Scranton Miners of the New York–Pennsylvania League. The Miners found his playing ability to be lacking and sent him to the Cincinnati Reds affiliate, the Nashville Volunteers, in a trade for Tiny Chaplin. From Nashville, he was sent to the Durham Bulls, where the Bulls manager and catcher, Johnny Gooch, was credited with helping control the wildness of Vander Meer's pitching. In 1936, he posted a record of 19 wins against six losses for Durham. Johnny Vander Meer Reds

Vander Meer made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds on April 22, 1937, at the age of 22. He went 3–4 before being sent back to the minor leagues with the

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for most of the season when the Reds recalled him in September. The following year on June 11, 1938, Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the

. Four days later against the Brooklyn Dodgers in what was the first night game ever held at

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...

, he threw another no-hitter, becoming the only player in major league history to throw two straight no-hitters. Vander Meer's performance earned him the role as the starting pitcher for the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

team in the 1938 All-Star game held at Cincinnati's Crosley Field. The

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

team – having won four of the previous five All-Star games – was favored to win the game, but Vander Meer pitched three scoreless innings and allowed only one hit, as the National League went on to win 4–1. He ended the season with a 15–10 record and a 3.12

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

for the fourth place Reds. He might have won more games, but spent nearly a month in the hospital being treated for boils late in the season. After his impressive rookie season, Vander Meer had a disappointing 1939 season, when he fell ill during spring training, and then suffered an injury when he slipped on a wet pitching mound in Pittsburgh. He posted a 5–9 record and an earned run average of 4.67. Early in the

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

season, he began to experience problems controlling the accuracy of his pitches. In June, the Reds released him back to the minor leagues where he played for the Indianapolis Indians and went 6–4. He returned to the major leagues in September and posted a 3–1 record, including a win for pitching 12 innings against Philadelphia on September 18; a win that clinched the National League pennant for the Reds. Leading off the 13th inning, Vander Meer hit a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, stayed at third on an infield hit, then scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly. [Note: th
Sacrifice Fly was not an official statistic in 1940
so the At Bat by Ival Goodman counted, as did his RBI]. In the

against the Detroit Tigers, Vander Meer made only one appearance when he entered Game 5 in the fifth inning with the Reds trailing 7–0. He pitched three scoreless innings as the Reds lost 8–0. The Reds went on to win the series in seven games. It would be the only post-season appearance of Vander Meer's career. In 1941, Vander Meer's performance improved somewhat with a 16–12 record and six

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s while leading the league with 202 strikeouts. On June 6, 1941, in a game against Philadelphia, he allowed only one hit. Vander Meer later recalled that the only hit in the game could have been ruled an

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistics ...

, as shortstop

Eddie Joost Edwin David Joost (June 5, 1916April 12, 2011) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played as a shortstop in Major League Baseball for all or portions of 17 seasons between 1936 and 1955. In , Joost became the third and l ...

fielded the

ground ball In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fou ...

, then dropped it before throwing to first base. He earned his third All-Star selection in the 1942 All-Star Game, and once again threw three scoreless innings in a 3–1 loss to the American League. He finished the

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...

season with a career-high 18 wins against 12 losses and once again led the league in strikeouts. He posted a 15–16 record in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

for the second place Reds and led the league in strikeouts for a third consecutive year. On March 3, 1944, Vander Meer joined the

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and was stationed at Sampson Naval Training Station in New York where he would play for the Navy baseball team. He was discharged from the Navy in December 1945, having lost two years of his major league career to his military service, but Vander Meer claimed that his extensive military play made him less wild as a pitcher, which his record partially supports. The 31-year-old pitcher returned to play for the Reds in 1946 although he was not able to recapture his previous form. Vander Meer was an incidental witness when his Cincinnati teammate Ewell Blackwell almost duplicated his consecutive no-hit feat in 1947, by pitching a no-hitter against the Braves, then in his next appearance held the Dodgers without a hit until the ninth inning when he gave up two hits. He produced one more notable season in 1948 when he went 17–14, before his contract was sold to the Chicago Cubs in February

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

. After an ineffective year with the Cubs, he was released in March

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and was signed as a free agent by the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

. He appeared in only one game for the Indians on May 7, 1951, before being released on June 30, 1951, at the age of 36. Vander Meer returned to the minor leagues where he played for five more seasons until the age of 40. In 1952, 14 years after his consecutive no-hitters, Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter for the

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against the

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in the

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Career statistics

A four-time All-Star, Vander Meer compiled a 119–121 record with 1,294 strikeouts and a 3.44 ERA in innings over a 13-year Major League career. He had 29 career

s, ranking third on the Reds franchise list. His 1,251 strikeouts with the Reds were the team record at the time of his retirement in 1951. Along with

Dizzy Dean Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean (both the 1910 and 1920 Censuses show his name as "Jay"), was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career ...

(1932–1935),

Warren Spahn Warren Edward Spahn (April 23, 1921 – November 24, 2003) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-handed pitcher, Spahn played in 1942 and then from 1946 until 1965, most notabl ...

(1949–1952),

Randy Johnson Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is an American photographer and former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (1988–2009) for six teams, primarily the Seattle M ...

(1999–2002),

Tim Lincecum Timothy Leroy Lincecum ( ; born June 15, 1984), nicknamed "The Freak", "The Franchise", "The Freaky Franchise" and "Big Time Timmy Jim", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San ...

(2008–2010), and

Max Scherzer Maxwell Martin Scherzer (born July 27, 1984) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, and L ...

(2016–2018), Vander Meer is one of only six NL pitchers since 1930 to lead the league in strikeouts in three straight seasons (1941–1943).

Later life

After retiring as a player at the age of 40, Vander Meer became a minor league manager in the Cincinnati Reds organization for ten seasons before retiring in 1962. After his retirement from baseball, he worked for a brewing company. He was inducted as part of the inaugural class into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1958. He died of an abdominal aneurysm at his home in

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, on October 6, 1997, at the age of 82.

References

External links

* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Vander Meer, Johnny 1914 births 1997 deaths American people of Dutch descent Baseball players from New Jersey Chicago Cubs players Cincinnati Reds players Cleveland Indians players Dayton Ducks players Daytona Beach Islanders players Durham Bulls players Indianapolis Indians players Major League Baseball pitchers Nashville Vols players National League All-Stars National League strikeout champions Oakland Oaks (baseball) players People from Midland Park, New Jersey People from Prospect Park, New Jersey Sportspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey Syracuse Chiefs managers Syracuse Chiefs players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players