Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The Marlins' Anibal Sanchez no-hit the D-Backs, 2-0, tonight as the red-hot Marlins finally tied the phloundering Phils for second place in the NL not-so-wild card hunt. The Phils and Marlins square off for a four-game series in Miami starting tomorrow. I expect the Phils to pull a Red Sox and witness the end to their postseason hopes sometime around Saturday.
Anyway, the media are making quite a bit out of the two-year wait between major-league no-hitters. It is significant, but it's not the longest wait in major-history as many are reporting.
The longest wait was actually for the second recorded no-hitter, on August 19, 1880 by Larry Corcoran. The first no-no came July 15, 1876. Here are the longest waits all-time (source data from ESPN.com):
| DATE | PITCHER | TEAM | SCORE | OPPONENT | SCORE | LEAGUE | Wait (Yrs) | Prev |
| 8/19/1880 | Larry Corcoran | CHI | 6 | BOS | 0 | N | 4.09 | 7/15/1876 |
| 9/18/1897 | Cy Young | CLE | 5 | CIN | 0 | N | 3.30 | 6/2/1894 |
| 9/18/1934 | Bobo Newsom | STL | 1 | BOS | 2 | A | 3.11 | 8/8/1931 |
| 6/22/1891 | Tom Lovett | BRK | 4 | NY | 0 | N | 2.74 | 9/27/1888 |
| 5/8/1929 | Carl Hubbell | NY | 11 | PIT | 0 | N | 2.71 | 8/21/1926 |
| 6/21/1888 | George Vanhaltren | CHI | 1 | PIT | 0 | N | 2.71 | 10/7/1885 |
| 4/27/1944 | Jim Tobin | BOS | 2 | BRK | 0 | N | 2.66 | 8/30/1941 |
| 9/6/2006 | Anibal Sanchez | FLA | 2 | ARI | 0 | N | 2.30 | 5/18/2004 |
| 9/20/1882 | Larry Corcoran | CHI | 5 | WOR | 0 | N | 2.08 | 8/20/1880 |
| 4/29/1931 | Wes Ferrell | CLE | 9 | STL | 0 | A | 1.98 | 5/8/1929 |
| 9/19/1986 | Joe Cowley | CHI | 7 | CAL | 0 | A | 1.97 | 9/30/1984 |
| 8/11/1950 | Vern Bickford | BOS | 7 | BRK | 0 | N | 1.92 | 9/9/1948 |
For fun, here are the shortest waits. 18 times fans had three or fewer days to wait, five times they didn't even have to wait one day:
| DATE | PITCHER | TEAM | SCORE | OPPONENT | SCORE | LEAGUE | Wait (Yrs) | Prev |
| 8/27/1911 | Joe Wood | BOS | 5 | STL | 0 | A | 0.000 | 8/27/1911 |
| 5/2/1917 | Hippo Vaughn | CHI | 0 | CIN | 1 | N | 0.000 | 5/2/1917 |
| 6/29/1990 | Fernando Valenzuela | LA | 6 | STL | 0 | N | 0.000 | 6/29/1990 |
| 10/15/1892 | Bumpus Jones | CIN | 7 | PIT | 1 | N | 0.000 | 10/15/1892 |
| 4/22/1898 | Jay Hughes | BAL | 8 | BOS | 0 | N | 0.000 | 4/22/1898 |
| 5/6/1917 | Bob Groom | STL | 3 | CHI | 0 | A | 0.003 | 5/5/1917 |
| 9/18/1968 | Ray Washburn | STL | 2 | SFO | 0 | N | 0.003 | 9/17/1968 |
| 5/1/1969 | Don Wilson | HOU | 4 | CIN | 0 | N | 0.003 | 4/30/1969 |
| 8/20/1880 | Pud Galvin | BUF | 1 | WOR | 0 | N | 0.003 | 8/19/1880 |
| 9/26/1906 | Lefty Leifield | PIT | 8 | PHI | 0 | N | 0.006 | 9/24/1906 |
| 9/20/1908 | Frank Smith | CHI | 1 | PHI | 0 | A | 0.006 | 9/18/1908 |
| 7/1/1990 | Andy Hawkins | NYY | 0 | CHI | 4 | A | 0.006 | 6/29/1990 |
| 7/28/1991 | Dennis Martinez | MTL | 2 | LA | 0 | N | 0.006 | 7/26/1991 |
| 5/5/1917 | Ernie Koob | STL | 1 | CHI | 0 | A | 0.008 | 5/2/1917 |
| 9/7/1923 | Howard Ehmke | BOS | 4 | PHI | 0 | A | 0.008 | 9/4/1923 |
| 9/21/1934 | Paul Dean | STL | 3 | BRK | 0 | N | 0.008 | 9/18/1934 |
| 9/29/1983 | Mike Warren | OAK | 3 | CHI | 0 | A | 0.008 | 9/26/1983 |
| 5/14/1996 | Dwight Gooden | NYY | 2 | SEA | 0 | A | 0.008 | 5/11/1996 |
Was 1990 the Year of the No-Hitter, or what? Has anyone written about why this was?
I believe it was just random chance.
1) It's in the middle of the offensive lull between the 1985-87 and 1993-present booms.
2) It's the year of the closer with Eck and Thigpen. It's really the year that the current bullpen configuration came to be.
3) It's right before the first modern, bandbox stadium was opened.
4) It's before the last two rounds of expansion, both of which drained pitching staffs.
5) And it seems to be prior to the steroid era.
I can't quantify a lot of those things, but it does seem to add up to something.
5 - 2- Don't forget those Nasty Boys too!
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