A Game to Remember: Final no-hitter at the Vet
April 27, 2003
RHP Kevin Millwood, 1-0, over the San Francisco Giants at Veterans Stadium. Age: 28. Catcher Mike Lieberthal. CF Ricky Ledee homered as the Phillies' second hitter in the first inning for the lone run. Season record: 14-10, 4.01 ERA.
In an historic season that the Phillies organization has dubbed “Field of Memories,” Kevin Millwood gave the fans a memory that the 40,016 in attendance on April 27, 2003 will never forget.
With the Phanatic’s birthday taking center stage on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, the big right-hander from North Carolina walked the first San Francisco batter he faced, but then took care of the Giants in the first inning with a strikeout, fly out and a caught stealing on a great throw from his battery mate, Mike Lieberthal.
In the second inning, Millwood got two more strikeouts, both called, on beautifully-placed fastballs that looked like they came out of the arsenal of Hall of Fame-bound Greg Maddux, a former mentor and teammate of Millwood. After striking out two more batters looking in the third inning, a few fans started to come to their feet, perhaps realizing that on this day, Millwood was “on.”
When Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba grounded out to end the fifth inning, if you didn’t know Millwood was pitching a no-hitter, all you had to do was listen to the crowd. “It was like the playoffs or the World Series,” said Millwood, who should know having made one start in the 1999 Fall Classic. “After the fifth, they got a little louder every inning. “You can say all you want about blocking out the fans, but from the sixth inning on I heard ’em. It helped me. It got my adrenaline going.”
The fans hung on to every pitch, every pop of the mitt and, loudest of all, every strike. They were the tenth man on the field, roaring and cheering for their newest chosen son. The edge-of-your-seat anxiety is exactly what makes major league baseball America’s Pastime. Did they have a bad morning? Did they get stuck in traffic? Were they at the end of busy week? Were their kids acting up? None of that mattered because they were witnessing history. The announced crowd of 40,016 fans sounded more like 140,016.
In the ninth inning, the crowd got so pumped up and excited that Millwood claimed he couldn’t hear himself think. And when that final out was recorded on his 108th pitch – a fly ball to center field that was appropriately caught by Ledee, who had homered to account for the only run of the game and made a spectacular catch late in the game to preserve the no-hitter – Millwood and his fans raised their arms in the air in unison and celebrated a kind of victory that most only dream about.
“It’s a little hard to put into words,” Millwood said, moments after pitching just the second no-hitter ever in the 33-year history of Veterans Stadium. Both were against the Giants.
Phillies fans of all ages were united that day and had their eyes focused on one man. It was one of those afternoons at the ballpark that years from now people who weren’t there will claim they were. It was special. It was magical. And it proved that, yes, baseball is alive and well in the City of Brotherly Love.
On behalf of the 40,016 in attendance and the millions watching on television and listening on the radio: Thanks for the memory, Kevin.
(Greg Casterioto is the Director, Baseball Communications for the Phillies).