Unforgettable Feat: Ron Necciai's 27-Strikeout Game

On May thirteenth, nineteen fifty two, Ronald Nicheei does something no one in professional baseball has ever done before. He strikes out twenty seven batters in a nine inning game while pitching for the minor leagues. Here's the story behind this crazy moment in baseball history today. Before we dribble into today's episode, let's shoot some love for our sponsor, Sports Social pro. If your team's social media presence as empty as the bleachers at a preseason game, I fear not. We're here to bring the fans roaring back, whether you need a full court press or just a halftime pep talk. Check us out at Daily Sports History, Com, slash social, and let's slam dunk your social media game. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive in a sports history every day now. Ronald Nate was a very raw baseball prospect with something that every baseball coach wanted, a blazing fastball. And when he was eighteen, he was scouted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and made his way into their farm system. But just like in the movie Major Leagues, he was a wild one and he was sent to the Salisbury Pirates and the Salisbury Farmers his first year in the minor leagues, putting up ara of twenty one and not even recording an ERA. While with the Shelby Pirates, he would either walk or strike him out, there was no in between. But the next year he was sent to Double A to work with a pitching specialist, Rip Swell, who was an ex Big league pitcher who was known for developing the very slow epis pitch, which looked similar to a slow pitch softball. Although Ronald did not have a slow pitch, he had curveball along with his blazing fastball. But that didn't mean that he had a great season either. In nineteen fifty one, he walked one hundred and twenty nine batters in one hundred and thirty nine inning and on average for the major leagues, they liked to be under a third per inning, and he was close to one. But with his blazing speed, he got the nickname Rocket ron When you have his blazing fastball, teams are always going to try to capture the speed and use it to their advantage, and that's exactly what the Pirates did. They brought him into the spring training the next year despite his challenges, but Ronald had an issue that he had dealt with his entire life. He had stomach ulcers, and doctors really didn't have a good way to deal with them at the time, and it would pop up at times he would have to gut his way through it, and that's exactly what happened during spring training, and he was taken to see a doctor and a team even asked if he would feel even comfortable playing that season after seeing the amount of pain he was in, but Ronald said, I am still playing, and so that year they sent him to the Appalachian League to play for the Bristol Twins, and this is where Rocket Ronald caught fire. For some reason, his control started to come and in his debut he struck out twenty and only walking For the next game, he struck out nineteen. Then following that, he came in for relief roles three days later and struck out at eleven. But he was still struggling with his stomach ulcers and in every game he was drinking milk beforehand to try to settle his stomach and taking any kind of medication he could at the time. And on May thirteenth, nineteen fifty two. He had terrible pain, but he wanted to pitch and was drinking milk in between innings. But this game, but this night, he was about to do something no one had ever seen before on a baseball field, strike out twenty seven batters in a nine inning game. I don't didn't even realize how many he was striking out. He realized he was having a pretty good game, as he had only hit one guy and walked one guy and had a couple guys get on base on an error, but he didn't realize the success he was having. And his catcher, Harry Dunlap, who played fourteen years in the minor leagues very similar to Kevin Costler's character in Bull Durham, and he would always say that Rocket Run threw harder than anyone he had caught before, and his curve ball would always catch them off guard, and they suspected in that one game, Rocket Ronald threw two hundred pitches, and catching a game for Ronald wasn't easy as he was wild, so the catcher was moving all over the place to make sure the balls didn't get past him, and he wouldn't strike out players With three straight pitches go deep into the count to get a strikeout, and when the game ended, Rocket Ronald had pitched his first no hitter, but allowed four people to get on base from a hit batter, an error, a drop, third strike, and one walk. And this pinke that team just trying at balls to make it to first base. He would still strike them out and getting to twenty seven strikeouts, which means he struck out three players every inning. But Ronald wasn't done. Actually, the next game struck out twenty four, setting a record for fifty one strikeouts in two games, and he was on a terror the rest of his time with the Bristol Twins. He had continued his dominance and struck out a league high one hundred and seventy six batters in just two months. And after this great streak in the miners, he finally got what every baseball player dreamed of, his chance to pitch in the majors at just twenty years old. But his lightning and a bottle he had was starting to fade, as hitters in the major leagues are a little bit better than the miners, and had his rookie year he went one in six with a seven point zero eight era, striking out thirty one and walking thirty two. But unfortunately, after that season he was drafted into the Korean War, although he was discharged later due to his stomach ulcer problems. It took him a while to get back into shape for baseball, and he actually tore his rotator cuff and lost the speed he had on his fastball, and by nineteen fifty five, due to his shoulder injury and his stomach ulcers, he was out of baseball forever, never making it back to the major leagues. But he didn't let this stop him. He continued a career outside of baseball in the sporting goodge industry, making a good career still in sports, but just in a different way. But he will always be remembered for what he did on that one day, striking out twenty seven in one game, a record that has never been beat at any level of professional baseball. And one thing we need to always remember is that we don't know when our SHOT's going to come, So whenever you're given the chance, go all out for it because it could all be over within an instant. And we need to keep going. Because Rocket Ronald didn't have a very long chance to make it in the Major League, and due to circumstances beyond its control, it didn't last long. So we always need to give our all whenever we're giving our opportunity to have success. And I want to give you the opportunity to show your love for our show by leaving us a review wherever you're listening. It means a lot to me whenever I see a review and just know you're putting a smile on my face every time. And if you send me a screenshot of your review, we'll send you a little something special. So send those screenshots at Daily Sports History at gmail dot com and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History