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John Samuel Vander Meer (November 2, 1914 – October 6, 1997) was an American professional baseball player.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Johnny Vander Meer statistics )〕 He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds.〔 Vander Meer was most well known for being the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw two consecutive no-hitters.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=This Day In Sports: Johnny Vander Meer Makes Debut(s) That Would Impress Stephen Strasburg )〕 After the impressive start to his major league career, he experienced problems controlling the accuracy of his pitching, and his later career was marked by inconsistent performances.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Johnny Vander Meer at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame )〕 Born in Prospect Park, New Jersey, he moved with his family to Midland Park, New Jersey in 1918.〔Coutros, Evonne. ("Midland Park marking 75th anniversary of Johnny Vander Meer's double no-hitters" ), ''The Record (Bergen County)'', April 8, 2013. Accessed January 27, 2015. "Born Nov. 2, 1914, Vander Meer was an athlete from the time he was in elementary school. His father, Jacob — who worked at Paterson's United Piece and Dye Works — and mother, Katie, lived in Prospect Park until 1918, when they moved to their first home in Midland Park on Rea Avenue."〕 ==Baseball career== Vander Meer threw left-handed and batted as a switch hitter.〔 He had an inauspicious start to his professional baseball career. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1933 and assigned to the Dayton Ducks. Dayton then sold his contract to a Boston Bees minor league affiliate, the Scranton Miners of the New York-Pennsylvania League.〔 The Miners found his playing ability to be lacking and sent him to the Cincinnati Reds affiliate, the Nashville Volunteers, in a trade for Tiny Chaplin.〔 From Nashville, he was sent to the Durham Bulls, where the Bulls manager and catcher, Johnny Gooch, was credited with helping control the wildness of Vander Meer's pitching.〔 In 1936, he posted a record of 19 wins against six losses for Durham.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Johnny Vander Meer minor league statistics )〕 Vander Meer made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds on April 22, 1937 at the age of 22.〔 He won 3 games and lost 4 before being sent back the minor leagues with the Syracuse Chiefs for most of the season when the Reds recalled him in September.〔 The following year on June 11, 1938, Vander Meer pitched a no hitter against the Boston Braves.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=June 11, 1938 Braves-Reds box score )〕 Four days later against the Brooklyn Dodgers in what was the first night game ever held at Ebbets Field, he threw another no hitter, becoming the only man to ever throw two consecutive no hitters in the major leagues.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=June 15, 1938 Reds-Dodgers box score )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Consecutive No Hitters by Johnny Vander Meer )〕 Vander Meer's performance earned him the role as the starting pitcher for the National League team in the 1938 All-Star game held at Cincinnati's Crosley Field. The American League team – having won four of the previous five All-Star games – was favored to win the game, but Vander Meer pitched three scoreless innings and allowed only one hit, as the National League went on to win by a score of 4-1.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1938 All-Star Game )〕 He ended the season with a record of 15 wins against 10 losses and a 3.12 earned run average for the fourth place Reds. He might have won more games, but spent nearly a month in the hospital being treated for boils late in the season. After his impressive rookie season, Vander Meer had a disappointing 1939 season, when he fell ill during spring training, and then suffered an injury when he slipped on a wet pitching mound in Pittsburgh.〔 He posted a record of only five wins with nine losses and an earned run average of 4.67. Early in the 1940 season, he began to experience problems controlling the accuracy of his pitches. In June, the Reds released him back to the minor leagues where he played for the Indianapolis Indians and produced 6 wins against 4 losses.〔 He returned to the major leagues in September and posted a 3-1 record, including a 12 inning victory against Philadelphia on September 18, that clinched the National League pennant for the Reds.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1940 Johnny Vander Meer Pitching Log )〕 In the 13th inning, Vander Meer hit a double, advanced to third base on a sacrifice fly, then scored the winning run on a squeeze bunt.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=September 18, 1940 Reds-Phillies box score )〕 In the 1940 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, Vander Meer made only one appearance when he entered Game 5 in the fifth inning with the Reds trailing by a score of 7-0. He pitched three scoreless innings as the Reds lost the game by a score of 8-0.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1940 World Series Game 5 box score )〕 The Reds went on to win the series in seven games.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1940 World Series )〕 It would be the only post-season appearance of Vander Meer's career.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Johnny Vander Meer post-season statistics )〕 In 1941, Vander Meer's performance improved somewhat with a 16-12 record and six shutouts while leading the league with 202 strikeouts. On June 6, 1941 in a game against Philadelphia, he allowed only one hit. Vander Meer later recalled that the only hit in the game could have been ruled an error, as shortstop Eddie Joost fielded the ground ball, then dropped it before throwing to first base. He earned his third All-Star selection in the 1942 All-Star game, and once again threw three scoreless innings in a 3-1 loss to the American League.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1942 All-Star Game )〕 He finished the 1942 season with a career-high 18 wins against 12 losses and once again led the league in strikeouts. He posted a 15-16 record in 1943 for the second place Reds and led the league in strikeouts for a third consecutive year. On March 3, 1944, Vander Meer joined the United States Navy and was stationed at Sampson Naval Training Station in New York where he would play for the Navy baseball team.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Remembering Johnny Vander Meer )〕 He was discharged from the Navy in December 1945, having lost two years of his major league career to his military service, but Vander Meer claimed that his extensive military play made him less wild as a pitcher, which his record partially supports. The thirty-one-year-old pitcher returned to play for the Reds in 1946 although he was not able to recapture his previous form. He produced one more notable season in 1948 when he won 17 games with 14 losses, before his contract was sold to the Chicago Cubs in February 1950. After an ineffective year with the Cubs, he was released in March 1951 and was signed as a free agent by the Cleveland Indians.〔 He appeared in only one game for the Indians on May 7, 1951 before being released on June 30, 1951 at the age of 36.〔 Vander Meer was an incidental witness when his Cincinnati team-mate Ewell Blackwell almost duplicated his consecutive no-hit feat in 1947, by pitching a no-hitter against the Braves, then in his next appearance held the Dodgers without a hit until the ninth inning when he gave up two hits.〔 Vander Meer returned to the minor leagues where he played for five more seasons until the age of 40.〔 In 1952, fourteen years after his consecutive no-hitters, Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter for the Tulsa Oilers against the Beaumont Roughnecks in the Texas League. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Johnny Vander Meer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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