Converted Outfielder Makes Good
Converted Outfielder Makes Good

Cliff Davis No-Hits the Sun Kings
San Antonio 5 El Paso 0 (7)
June 1, 1963

From the Sunday San Antonio Light the morning after the game:

"The San Antonio Bullets ventilated El Paso with both barrels at Mission Stadium Saturday night, combining the no-hit pitching of Cliff Davis in the first game with the no-run hurling of Larry Yellen and Joe Hoerner in the nightcap to sweep a twin bill from the Sun Kings.
The 5 - 0 and 1 - 0 defeats dropped the power-hitting team from West Texas into second place in the Texas League, a game back of San Antonio.
Davis, a converted outfielder who is trying his first season of pitching, was brilliant in the seven-inning no hitter, muffling the loud bats of the Sun Kings without serious sign of anything resembling a hit. In padding his record to 6 - 2, the slender Davis allowed only five base runners, four via walks, and one hit by a pitched ball.
By contrast, his San Antonio mates paddled El Paso hurler Rick Slomkowski for 11 safeties on the way to an easy victory."

El Paso Sun Kings ABRHRBI
Jose Cardenal, cf 3 0 0 0
Joe Sparks, 2b 3 0 0 0
Larry Stubing, 1b 2 0 0 0
Dick Dietz, rf 2 0 0 0
Arlo Engel, lf 1 0 0 0
Julio Linares, ss 2 0 0 0
Randy Hundley, c 2 0 0 0
Vic Roznovsky, ph 0 0 0 0
Jose Calero, 3b 3 0 0 0
Dick Slomkowski, p 2 0 0 0
El Paso totals20 0 0 0
San Antonio Bullets ABRHRBI
Mike White, 2b 4 1 3 0
Bob Boyd, 1b 4 0 1 1
Jim Wynn, ss 2 0 0 0
Ed Olivares, 3b 3 1 2 0
Jim Pendleton, lf c3 1 1 0
Danny Murphy, rf 3 0 0 0
Ron Davis, cf 3 0 1 0
Jerry Grote, c 3 1 1 0
Cliff Davis, p 3 0 1 0
 
San Antonio totals30 5 11 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7   R H E
El Paso 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 0 2
San Antonio 0 0 4 1 0 0 x   5 11 0

E  - Dietz, Sparks
DP - El Paso 1 (Calero to Stubing)
LOB- El Paso 5 San Antonio 7
2B - Boyd, Olivares
HR - Wynn
S  - Linares

El Paso IPHRERBBK
Dick Slomkowski (L, 4 - 3) 6 11 5 3 0 2

San Antonio IPHRERBBK
Cliff Davis (W, 6 - 2) 7 0 0 0 4 5


HBP - by Davis (Hundley) PB - Hundley
Time - 1:40 Attendance - 2,900

Cliff Davis had spent 1961 as a reserve outfielder with the Jacksonville Jets, and was no doubt on the bench watching when Benjamin Griggs pitched his 12-inning non-no-hitter in May of that year. Davis hit .221 for the Jets, yet was retained by the Colts, and so gave pitching a try first in 1962 with the Cal League Modesto Colts, regardless of what the Light's article says. He went 12 - 11 with Modesto and earned the promotion to the AA Texas League for 1963. He would finish the year at 13 - 7 with a 4.33. He spent '64 in Dallas of the PCL for the Kansas City organization, then disappeared from baseball for three years, returning for the Cocoa Astros in '68, where he went 8 - 3 with a 1.18. He pitched less successfully for the Astros Peninsula entry in 1969, then closed out his career in 1970 with the independent Raleigh-Durham Triangles of the Carolina League, whom he also managed to a second place finish. In 1971, he would manage the Astros' Columbus affiliate in the AAA Southern League to a sixth-place finish.

Source: The San Antonio Express & News & The San Antonio Light, June 2, 1963
And the other usual suspects

Thanks very much to David King

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