Joe Borden

The Philadelphia White Stockings, of the NA, had recently dismissed pitcher Cherokee Fisher in July 1875 due to his clashing with team captain, Mike McGeary, and were in need of a replacement. The White Stockings signed George Zettlein, but there was a delay in his arrival.[4] The team then signed Borden, who was a local Philadelphia amateur player, as a replacement until Zettlein arrived.[4] His first appearance in a game for the White Stockings was on July 24, an 11–4 loss to the Dick McBride and the Philadelphia Athletics.[4]

In his next start, on July 28 against the Chicago White Stockings, he pitched the first recorded no-hitter in professional baseball history.[4][5] Borden lost the next three games he started before defeating the St. Louis Brown Stockings, and future Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin, 16–0 on August 9.[4] By this time, Zettlein had settled in as their regular pitcher, and Borden was no longer needed.[4] During his time with the White Stockings, he pitched in seven games, all of which he started and completed.[1] He finished the season with a 2–4 win–loss record, two shutouts, a 1.50 earned run average in 66 innings pitched.[1]

After the 1875 season concluded, the league, and subsequently the Philadelphia White Stockings, folded, allowing the NL to form, becoming the first "Major" league.[6] Before the season, Borden signed a three-year contract worth $2000 a season ($48,020 current dollar adjustment) with the Boston Red Caps of the NL.[7] The club had high expectations that he could adequately replace Albert Spalding who had recently departed for the Chicago White Stockings.[7] Sportswriters were in agreement with the club and dubbed him "Josephus the Phenomenal". Hall of Fame baseball writer Henry Chadwick described Borden's pitching style as having speed, but with little strategy.[8] In addition to his swiftly moving fastball, he also delivered a curveball that moved down and away from right-handed batters; both pitches he delivered from a low arm angle.[7] His Red Caps played the Philadelphia Athletics in the first game in NL history on April 22; the only game of the day due to rain cancelling the rest of the league's schedule. The Red Caps defeated the Athletics with two runs in the ninth inning, and a final score of 6–5 at Athletic Park, with Borden pitching the complete game for the victory.[6]

On May 23, Borden pitched a two-hit 8–0 shutout victory against the Cincinnati Reds. Various historians claim that this performance was, instead, the first no-hitter thrown in the NL, thus the first in major league history.[9] According to Lee Allen, baseball historian and writer, the scorecard shows that Borden gave up two bases on balls, which were counted as hits in the final score.[9] The official scorekeeper for the game was O. P. Caylor, a writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer, who believed, unlike his contemporaries, that bases on balls should be scored as hits.[9] Bases on balls were only officially counted as hits for the 1887 season.[9] The Boston Daily Globe reported on the game the following day, and noted that Reds had had two clean one-base hits during the game.[10] Furthermore, on June 6, the New York Clipper did not report an occurrence of a no-hitter in their summary of the game, though the box score did have differing stats in other categories than what the Daily Globe had reported.[10] Consequently, the first official no-hitter in Major League history was pitched by George Bradley, of the St. Louis Brown Stockings on July 15, 1876.[5]

Two days after his near no-hitter, on May 25, Borden and the Red Caps faced the Reds again; this time against Cherokee Fisher, resulting in a scoreless game through nine innings.[10] The Red Caps scored four runs in tenth inning for a 4–0 victory.[10] Unfortunately for Borden, his pitching effectiveness declined rapidly after this, and at one point he reportedly lost his temper during a game in response to his own ineffectiveness, admonishing his teammates, even the well-liked and good-natured future Hall of famer George Wright.[11] Due to his erratic pitching and behavior, he was released from the team by August.[10][11] In 29 games pitched during the 1876 season, he started 24, completed 16, and recorded two shutouts. Additionally, he had an 11–12 win–loss record, a 2.89 earned run average in 218⅓ innings pitched, and led the league in allowing 51 bases on balls.[1]