Pictured are (left to right) Steve Russell, Mid Mon Valley chapter general chairman, Ron Necciai, and Dr. Steve George, president of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
PHOTO COMPLIMENTS OF RON PAGLIA
Congratulations, Ron Necciai! Your 27K game as a pitcher for the Bristol Twins against the Welch Miners back on May 13, 1952 certainly ought to have been enough to qualify you for the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. All you did that day was something that no pitcher in baseball history has done previously or since – get all the recorded outs in a regulation nine inning game victory by strikeout – and while you were at it – you threw a no-hitter too! Great going, Ron, and thank you, Pennsylvania induction officials, for waking up to the obvious and getting Ron Necciai where’s he’s always belonged – at the place of your state’s greatest honor for sports accomplishment.
Ron Necciai was inducted with several others that are included in this following group photo, also supplied by a friend and local Monongahela Valley writer, Ron Paglia:
2014 PENN SPORTS HOF inductees seated: Elizabeth Cope for deceased father Myron, Bob Milkvy, Gerald Karver, Debbie Black, and Ron Necciai. Standing: Joseph Bressi, Kane Kalas for deceased father Harry, John McDonald, Lance Rautzhan, John Cartwright and Robert Donato.
~ PHOTO COMPLIMENTS OF RON PAGLIA
One other name on the above list should be familiar to Houston baseball fans. The posthumous induction of the great play-by-play man, Harry Kalas, honors the Phillies broadcaster who got his MLB start in Houston during the salad days of the Astrodome. He made famous the appropriate home run call for homers in the dome by excitedly declaring its every happening with these wordS: “… AND THAT BALL IS IN ASTRO-ORBIT!” – Congratulations to you too, Harry Kalas, for a most fitting cap on your great career!
The induction event was held at the Woodlands Inn and Resort in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on November 8, 2014 Thank you too, Ron Paglia, for making so much worthwhile information available to us here at The Pecan Park Eagle. We fly with this kind of sports news.
How does a pitcher get 27 K’s in one game when he goes into the 9th with only 23 K’s in the can? It’s easy. Check out this picture from the losing Welch club’s 9th. Ron Neccia struck out 4 in the 9th when one K batter reached base because the Bristol catcher dropped strike three.
By coincidence yesterday, I received a gift in the mail that I will treasure forever. My childhood pitching hero and role model, and now new member of the Penn Sports Hall of Fame, Ron Necciai, sent me a blown up copy of the actual scorecard that recorded his 27K, 7-0, no hit victory for the Class D Bristol Twins in an Appalachian League home game he pitched against the Welch Miners on May 13, 1952. As you probably know, it was the first and only time in baseball history that any pitcher ever recorded all 27 outs of a normal nine inning game by the strikeout route. And, to boot, he also mastered a non-hitter out of the deal.
| May 13, 1952 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ~ | R | H | E |
| Welch Miners | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Bristol Twins | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | X | ~ | 7 | 6 | 3 |
Did Ron Necciai know what he was doing – while he was doing it? Make your own call, but here’s what he said to Kevin Czerwinski of MLB.com for an article that appeared on the Internet back on August 23, 2006:
“At the time, I didn’t know what I had done,” Necciai said of his history making effort. “I didn’t realize it, and didn’t know until after the game was over, in the clubhouse, when the manager said, ‘You struck out 27 batters.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘So what? They’ve been playing this game for 100 years, and I’m sure someone else has done it before me.’ But no one did.
“I didn’t realize it was a no-hitter, either. It wasn’t like 27 guys walked up there and struck out. They had a few walks, I hit a guy, and we had a few errors. Otherwise, the game doesn’t stand out in any way.”
Ron Necciai
1952
Regardless of his actual wisdom of this event’s enormity as he was committing the act, the future looked like a wide open heaven to Ron Necciai that day in 1952 as the baseball world struggled to recover sufficiently to map out the things that the 19-year old phenom might likely do next. The parent Pittsburgh Pirates were especially happy since they totally controlled the young man’s future services back in those days of the reserve clause. They even called him all the way to Pittsburgh during that same 1952 season, but Ron wasn’t ready and most probably was also pushed too hard to keep from hurting his arm and rewriting history for a young man who then finished the season with a torn rotator cuff from working out too hard at Forbes Field one day. Necciai effectively was finished with baseball at a time when there was no surgical cure for his injury. He also had suffered severe stomach ulcer pain during his time with the Pirates, finishing his brief big league career with an MLB record of 1-6 and an ERA of 7.08.
After three more years of knocking around the minors, trying to build a career with his injured arm, Ron Necciai hung it up after 1955. It was the reasonable thing to do. When Ron Necciai left organized baseball after his meteoric rise and fall, he then did quite nicely for himself in the sporting goods business. Today he remains active and healthy as a man who gave much to baseball – and also much to life.
Stay ready, Mr. Necciai. – You never know when those same old Pirates may call you back for one more run with gun. And thank you so much for that nifty scorecard of “the game.” It really helps bring to life one of the most incredible days in baseball history.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 13, 2014 at 10:30 pm |
He didn’t get 27 outs on strikeouts, though, as your photo caption makes clear, only 26.
November 13, 2014 at 11:34 pm |
Necciai still got K credit for the batter who reached first in the 9th after a swinging strike three pitch that was dropped by the catcher. That one, plus the other three K’s he had in the 9th that did result directly into “outs” altogether elevated his K count for 9th to “4” That “4” Ks, added to the 23 he already had, gave him credit for 27 K’s on the game.
Did all of the 27 Ks result in outs? No, your always predictably technical point stands. – The one K in the 9th that reached first on the catcher did not. Ron Necciai still received credit and much attention for striking out 27 men in one nine inning game. The single “strikeout” that allowed the runner to reach first was scored in the only way it could be under the rules that still exist today – as a “K” for pitcher Necciai and an “E” for Bristol catcher Dunlop.
Even if the K batter reaches first on a catching error, the pitcher still gets credit for a “strikeout” even though no actual out resulted from the play. Only if you ask about the Necciai game: “how many batters were actually put out as a result of their group 27 Ks in the game” can you answer 26.
Only on that technical point are you correct. Ron Necciai still got 27K game credit as the first and only pitcher to ever do so.
November 14, 2014 at 2:10 am |
Wow