Michael Jackson's Near No-No: Veterans Stadium, June 7, 1987

This past week marked the 50 year anniversary of the opening of Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia. In 1971, Veteran's Stadium was one of those circular, multi-purpose, concrete and  Astroturf structures that were popular at the time. It was not an ideal venue for watching baseball (wherever you sat you were too far from the field), but I did get to see many great  baseball games there. One of the appealing factors of attending a game at the Vet was that there were always plenty of cheap seats. In the 1980s, as a newly divorced father of three on a limited budget, cheap seats were a real god send. On one memorable day, my birthday, June 7, 1987, I packed up my two younger children, Bruce 10, and Megan, 3, and headed down to the Vet to see the Phillies play the Expos. We parked on Pattison Avenue, blocks from the stadium, but free, and purchased general admission tickets, four bucks for me and 50 cents apiece for the kids. If we limited ourselves to one hot dog and one soda each, we could keep expenses under 20 dollars for the day.

We entered the Vet and trudged up ramp after ramp, me sometimes carrying, sometimes pulling Megan along, until we reached the top and took up seats in one of the top twelve rows reserved for the financially fragile. You could choose any seats up there and we got ours down the first base line, although the baseline was pretty hard to see from up there. The starting pitcher for the Phillies that day was a 22 year-old rookie with the familiar name of Michael Jackson. Jackson had come up through the Phillies system and made the team as a reliever, but was pressed into service as a starter when Joe Cowley proved ineffective. On this day, Michael Jackson would pitch the game of his life and very nearly hurl the first Phillies no-hitter at the Vet.

We had barely settled into our seats, if you can ever really settle into seats when you have three year-old in tow, when Jackson set the tone for the day. He struck out Casey Candaele and Mitch Webster and got Tim Raines to fly out to Milt Thompson in centerfield, all without throwing a single ball that was not a strike. In the Phillies half of the first, Juan Samuel brought us out of our seats cheering with a triple down the right field line that scored Thompson who had singled leading off the inning. 

Jackson mowed the Expos hitters down in order in the second and third, nine up, nine down to start the game. In the bottom of the third, Thompson extended the Phillies lead to 2-0 with a home run to right. In the fourth, the first blemish appeared on Jackson's record when he walked Webster and wild pithed him to second. But he retired the dangerous Raines on a ground ball to Samuel and got Tim Wallach to fly out to right. By this time the kids were getting a bit restless so we went down to a concession stand for our hot dogs and sodas. We ate them down on the concourse and then I let Megan run around the stadium, it was circular remember, to get some exercise. Megan, who at three cared nothing about baseball had done a good job of being patient with her baseball fanatic brother and father, but a little walk around the park seemed prudent at this time.

By the time we climbed back to our seats, it was clear that something special was brewing. The Phillies were batting in the bottom of the sixth, the score was still 2-0, but I pointed to the scoreboard and said to Bruce, "Jackson hasn't given up any hits yet." On the scoreboard it showed the Phillies had committed an error (by first baseman Von Hayes on a ball hit by Tim Raines), but where the space was for Expos' hits it still read "0." Jackson got the Expos out without incident in the seventh and then helped the Phils extend their lead, when he sacrificed Steve Jeltz to second base, from where he scored on another Milt Thompson hit. 

At this point, manager John Felske seemed to acknowledge something special was happening when he made a defensive substitution in left field, bringing in Chris James for Mike Easler. The large "Bat Day" crowd of 42,000 plus was also getting into it, cheering Jackson with each out. But Megan had had enough of sitting. She pleaded to go down to run around the concourse again. I had to acquiesce. She had done very well sitting patiently and enough was enough. Bruce protested, "But Dad, it's a no-hitter." But we left our seats and took Megan down to run off some energy. As we circled the stadium for the second time that day, Bruce would run up an entrance ramp with each new cheer to see what was happening. With this relay method, I learned that Jackson's no-hitter was intact through eight innings. 

Through some cajoling, and the added inducement of some ice cream, we got back to our seats for the ninth inning. By this time the crowd was cheering every pitch. The first Expos batter in the ninth was Tim Raines and everyone in the ballpark knew he was the biggest threat to the no-hitter. Sure enough, Raines lined a Jackson fastball off the right field fence for a double and the no-hitter was no more. The crowd let out a collective moan.  Raines eventually scored and Steve Bedrosian came in to save the game for Jackson. The Phillies had a 3-1 win, the fans had had plenty of excitement, and Megan had gotten some ice cream, but Veteran's Stadium would have to wait a few more years for a no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher.*

Coming into this game, Jackson had been hit around in four previous starts. For this game he told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Dolson, "Hey, I am just going to go out and throw my fastball. That's my best pitch. - just try to get guys out." That is what he did. Mike Jackson developed into a very reliable reliever in his 17-year major league career. Most of that, however, was with teams other than the Phillies. After his rookie season, the Phillies traded him to Seattle. Jackson had his best years with San Francisco and Cleveland. In 1998 with the Indians he had 40 saves and a microscopic 1.55 ERA. He retired with 142 Saves, 96th on the career Saves list.

*Terry Mulholland pitched the first no-hitter by a Phillie at Veteran's Stadium on August 15, 1990 against the San Francisco Giants