The eventual development of the true definition of a no hitter came as a result of one game in 1990. On July 1st, the Yankees and White Sox were both scoreless going into the bottom of the 8th, when suddenly the white sox took control by scoring four runs in the inning. Thanks in main part to the yankees making three errors in the inning with two runners getting on by way of the ol’ base on balls. The yankees ended up losing 4-0, but this game made headlines everywhere, because with most probably not even noticing, Andy Hawkins did not give up a hit in his 8 innings. He walked 5 and three got on by error and he gave up 4 unearned runs, but he gave up no hits so naturally there was a lot of discussion involving the game. 

And no matter the debates that ensued after the game, Hawkins efforts did not go down as a no hitter as a year later on september 4, 1991, commissioner Fay Vincent changed the definition of a no hitter to require that a pitcher must throw at least 9 innings and a complete game for a no hitter to be official, which took away Hawkins no hitter credit. The decision didn’t just come out of nowhere or only looked into because of what Hawkins did, instead it was a byproduct of the formation of the committee on statistical accuracy.

That’s not some facebook group for people with a bunch of free time, but rather a group formed by Fay Vincent to help settle the issue of if Babe Ruth and Roger Maris should share the single season record for home runs. Babe Ruth hit 60 in a 154 game season and Maris hit 61 in a 162 game season, and the books listed Ruth as the home run king for a 154 game season while maris was the king for a 162 game season. 

Vincent was inspired by a Roger Angell article in the New Yorker calling for the commissioner to make Maris the sole leader. He said in a 2022 interview regarding this, “We couldn’t have two sets of records. It was an embarrassment. It smacked of Ford Frick determining that Roger Maris was a poor successor to Babe Ruth.” The commitee proclaimed Maris to be the sole single season home run king which was well received, although some were a little upset over the new definition of a no hitter as just mentioned.   

The decision took away many no hitters from the official record books with one other like Hawkins. This one coming in 1890 by Silver King while pitching for Chicago in the players league in which he threw 8 no hit innings, but as he gave up a run on a fielders choice and because the home team opted to bat first as was allowed in the time, he didn’t pitch the 9th, so the no hitter was revoked. Vincent had a main say in the new definition and felt the reaction to Hawkins supposed no hitter was silly considering how many no hitters have reached their grave yards in the 9th. Many on this committee didn’t have plans to remove no hitters from the books, but Vincent had the final say, and Silver King had to come back to life to update his Wikipedia bio.

Ty Cobb is the all time hits leader for Saturdays, recording 697 hits in 525 games. Cobb had a knack for hitting on Saturdays because in 50 less games, he had 32 more hits than Pete Rose who’s in 2nd. Tris Speaker also seemed to love the best day of the week as he recorded 646 hits in just 482 games, while Stan Musial, who’s near the top for any other day of the week, is down at 24th with 512.