Most No-Hitters By First Name

I always feel weird when something like Francisco Liriano’s no-hitter happens. I think, “Hey, that’s right up my alley. I’ll do a list of the weirdest no-hitters.” But many people have already written that post. So I have to do something a bit more out of left field: ranking the number of no-hitters for each first name.

First, a bit about the ground rules. I combined all simple variations of a name, so “Bob” and “Bobby” count as the same name. I did not, however, combine any nicknames that are more than just a simple shortening/lengthening of the original name. So “Jack” doesn’t get lumped in with “John,” even if Jack’s real first name is actually John. In the case of guys with first names like “Sad Sam” and “Smokey Joe,” I counted them as just “Sam” and “Joe,” respectively.

I went by each player’s officially listed name on Baseball-Reference.com; I didn’t research each player’s birth name or anything like that. Okay, without further ado, here are the rankings. Does your name make the list?

Alas for me, no Jacobs have ever thrown a no-hitter, or Jakes for that matter. There have, however, been no-hitters by guys with the following names:

• Cannonball (Titcomb)*
• Old Hoss (Radbourn, of course)
• Adonis (Terry, who had 2 no-nos)
• Bumpus (Jones)
• Hooks (Wiltse)
• Noodles (Hahn)

* If this isn’t the best baseball name of all time, it’s gotta be close.

And, of course, a Francisco has now thrown a no-hitter. So congratulations to him.