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So I was searching around on Wikipedia today. For some reason I ended up on the list of all the Baseball Hall of Fame inductees (can’t quite remember how I ended up there), which shows the percentage of the vote that each player received. Tom Seaver was the highest percentage vote getter, at 98.84%. Then I ended up reading his whole profile, and then finally made it to the List of pitchers who have struck out 18 or more batters in a nine-inning MLB game. And now I can get to the point. There’s a note at the bottom of the list that says:

The record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning game by a minor league pitcher was set by Ron Necciai, who struck out 27 batters in a Class-D game between the Appalachian League Bristol Twins and the Welsh Miners (May 13, 1952).

So I went to the Ron Necciai page to read about this. Necciai, 19, threw a no hitter, with one ground out, a walk, an error, a HBP, and a passed ball. The passed ball was in the 9th with 2 outs on a 3rd strike, which led to the batter reaching first, but still crediting Necciai with a legitimate K. He then struck out the next batter as well to finish with 27 Ks. And he did all of this while feeling like he might throw up due to stomach ulcers.

In his next start, Necciai threw a 24-K two-hitter (including 5 Ks in 1 inning - that’s one hell of a curveball!). Before the 27-K game, he struck out 20 and 19 in back-to-back games, and struck out 11 in a row in a relief appearance. He racked up 109 Ks in 43 innings with Bristol, for a rate of 22.8 K/9, and 172 Ks in 123 innings in Class B Durham (12.3 K/9). He didn’t do so hot when called up to the big leagues for Pittsburgh, but if not for a torn rotator cuff (a career ending injury at that time), who knows what he could have done?

I think that must be one of the amazing sports feats I’ve never heard of. There’s lots more information in an article here, too, if you feel compelled. Some of Necciai’s comments from the article:

“My fondest baseball memory is simply all the wonderful people I met, both fans and players,” he says.

“I got to know Mr. [Branch] Rickey in 1952 in Pittsburgh even though he was the general manager of the club and I was just a rookie. He treated me very well and was always a man of his word. He also paid me the greatest compliment I was ever given in baseball, saying I was one of the three greatest pitchers he had ever seen.”

Necciai says this with a hint of disbelief in his voice as he reveals the comparison.

“The other two were Christy Mathewson and Dizzy Dean, both in the Hall of Fame. Not bad company, huh? He was a wonderful man, and I cannot say enough good things about him.”

Anyway, you can find some pretty cool stuff by just randomly clicking on Wikipedia links. There’s even a “random article” link on the left sidebar. List of Rare Baseball Events is pretty cool too.