Rookie's Debut

Day after day, Rookie Pitcher Alva Holloman of the St. Louis Browns plucked at Manager Marty Marion's sleeve. "I'm not a bullpen pitcher," "Bobo" Holloman would say. "I'm a starting pitcher. Give me a chance." Manager Marion just kept shaking his head. Two or three times, Bobo was called in from the bull pen to do a little relief pitching. But the big (205 Ibs., 6 ft. 2 in.), 27-year-old righthander was not very impressive: ten hits, five earned runs in 5 1/2 innings. One night last week, tired of Bobo's sleeve plucking, Manager Marion finally gave in, told Bobo he could start next day against the Philadelphia Athletics. Bobo made the historic most of it.

On his way to the mound in the first inning, lumbering Bobo paused and scratched a "G" and an "N" in the dirt along the third-base path. The initials were for his son Gary, 6, and wife Nan, who were sitting in the stands along with a hard core of 2,471 other drizzle-soaked Browns fans. Inning after inning, Bobo went through the initial-scratching routine just once. But inning after inning, mixing fast balls, curves and sinkers, Bobo set the Athletics down. By the fifth, it began to occur to the fans that Rookie Holloman hadn't give up a hit: when one of the A's got to first on a slow roller to the mound that Bobo juggled for a moment, the crowd set up a shout for the benefit of the official scorer: "Error!

Error! Error!" It was ruled an error.

In the eighth inning, as the tension rose, the Browns' Rookie Shortstop Bill Hunter made a diving stop of a hot grounder and threw out the base runner by a step. Bobo, who had already driven in three runs, enough to win his own game, heaved a huge sigh. In the ninth, the pressure finally began to unsettle Bobo just a little. He walked the first man on four straight pitches, issued three more balls to the next batter. Manager Marion was so jittery that he could not bring himself to go to tie mound to try and settle Bobo down. Old Pitching Pro Harry ("The Cat") Brecheen went out to the mound to talk Bobo out of his nervousness. Bobo threw a strike, then another ball, and he had two Athletics on the bases. The next batter hit into a double play--one out to go to a no-hit game.

Bobo licked his lips, rubbed the ball between sweating palms, fiddled with his cap. faced the plate. First Baseman Eddie Robinson, the A's cleanup batter, stood there, easily lifting his big bat. Bob, with the ball cradled on his chest between glove and pitching hand, threw a quick glance to the runner on first base, took a bead on the plate, and pitched. Robinson swung--and missed. Strike one. Bobo pitched again. Foul tip, strike two. Bobo had his control back. His third pitch was in the strike zone. Robinson met it squarely and sent a low liner down the right-field line--foul. Bobo pitched again. Again Robinson connected and a lazy fly went sailing into right field. With the crack of the bat, Outfielder Vic Wertz wheeled, sped a few steps toward the fence, turned and neatly gathered it in for the last out. On the mound, as the crowd cheered and his jubilant teammates crowded around him, Bobo Holloman took off his cap and squeegeed his sweating brow with the heel of his salary hand. "I was prayin' and hopin'," he said. He had pitched the first no-hitter for a Browns team since Bob Groom turned the trick 36 years ago to the day. And he was the first major-league rookie to pitch a no-hit game in his starting appearance since Charles Leander ("Bumpus") Jones pitched a no-hitter for Cincinnati 61 years ago.

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