25 years ago, Yankees' Andy Hawkins threw baseball's most painful no-hitter ... - NJ.com
Andy Hawkins doesn't have to bring up his claim to fame as a Major League pitcher around the young players he now coaches with the Texas Rangers. "It's just a matter of time because somebody figures it out and asks me," Hawkins said over the phone recently. "They always do. They always do. ". And, when they do, he'll tell the story one more time, just like he has countless times over the past 25 years. He'll talk about how the Yankees were already 16 games under. It was so windy that a young slugger for the White Sox named Sammy Sosa "hit a ball so hard it probably would have gone 500 feet," Hawkins remembered, but it somehow stayed in the park and landed safely in the glove belonging to a rookie left... "If it had not been for the wind he would have hit a home run," Hawkins said, "and this whole thing would never have been talked about. Instead, this whole thing — one of the most painful no-hitters in Major League history — has followed Hawkins his entire life. I was recent high school graduate that summer, watching that game from the sofa in my parents' living room, and what happened to poor Andy Hawkins that day drove home an important point that has stayed with me ever since. That, sometimes, the games we love don't love us back. "It's my no-hitter," said Hawkins, who graciously agreed to relive it one more time. Source: www.nj.com
