Hooks & Runs · A podcast about baseball, music and culture.

258 - "I Was a Kid Too Back Then" w/ Rick Wise

·54 min·3 clips

Wise describes beating Cincinnati in the 1971 no-hitter after feeling weak from the flu and sweating out the last three innings.

Hooks and Runs opens with Craig and Rex welcoming Rick Wise to the table. Wise’s career stretched across 18 major league seasons. He spent most of that time with Philadelphia and Boston, with St. Louis, San Diego, and Cleveland also in the mix. The hosts point to 188 wins, 30 shutouts, and 138 complete games, which is a lot of work by any standard. They also lean into the part of Wise’s game that still feels unusual: he was one of baseball’s best-hitting pitchers ever. He hit 15 home runs. Six of those 18 seasons came in the American League, which meant fewer chances to swing, even if the bat stayed part of the picture. The conversation then shifts to a Boston visit earlier in the year. Wise says he was there on opening day with the whole team. He went back later for a couple of signings. He also spent time with former teammates. Another Boston trip was already planned for September through the Yawkey Foundation. From there the talk moves into a Cincinnati game that Wise remembers clearly. He says the Reds were putting the ball in play early in the count, and that he did not quite have the fastball they were used to seeing. By the sixth inning, he had sweated out most of the flu he was fighting and felt strong again, but he still never settled in because Cincinnati could score in a hurry. He remembers watching the scoreboard in center field and working through a hanging slider from Ross Grimsley before later getting a green light and driving a pitch off Clay Carroll to left center. Pete Rose comes up as the last batter with the no-hit tension still hanging over the story, and that is where the conversation settles into its sharpest stretch.

As heard by us

A steady baseball memory piece built around Wise's no-hit stretch and the details around it.

Rick Wise's 18-season major league run, mostly in Philadelphia and Boston with stops in St. Louis, San Diego, and Cleveland, gives Hooks and Runs its center.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a pitcher career story with one no-hit chase still hanging over it, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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