Athlete
Birthplace: Kenosha, WI and Pinellas County, FL
You Know Him As: Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics.
Dick Bosman holds a distinction that no man in history may ever equal: He’s the only man from Kenosha to ever throw a no-hitter in a Major League Baseball game.
Bosman did the deed on July 19, 1974, as a member of the Cleveland Indians. In that once-in-a-lifetime performance, Bosman no-hit the eventual World Series champion Oakland A’s in a 4-0 Indians victory. Unfortunately, he had nobody to blame but himself for missing out on a rare perfect game, committing a throwing error in the fourth inning that put the only A’s runner on base. Nonetheless, his no-hitter against a lineup that included Reggie Jackson and Sal Bando was a spectacular accomplishment.
Bosman was born in Kenosha on Feb. 17, 1944, and was known throughout his baseball career as a fierce competitor. According to a quote on the Web site baseballlibrary.com, Bosman used to tell teammates, “If you don’t hustle when I’m pitching, I’ll kick your ass.”
Bosman was regarded as an outstanding control pitcher, compiling a career record of 82-85 with an earned run average of 3.67 over an 11-year career. He played for the Washington Senators from 1966-71, the Texas Rangers from 1972-73, the Indians from 1973-75 and the A’s from 1975-76. His best season came in 1969, when he went 14-9 with an American League-best 2.19 ERA for the Senators. He followed that campaign with a career-high 16 wins in 1970.
Bosman is historically linked with the Senators in another way, having started the last game in franchise history on Sept. 30, 1971. The Senators trailed 5-1 into the fifth inning, came back to take a 7-5 lead and ultimately were forced to forfeit the game when fans swarmed the field with two outs in the top of the ninth.
In addition to his no-hitter, Bosman pitched a couple other watershed games. On Aug. 14, 1970, he hurled a one-hit shutout in a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins, surrendering a lone single to Cesar Tovar. And on April 5, 1971, he beat Oakland’s star Vida Blue 8-0 in a Senators’ Opening Day victory in front of 45,000 fans at RFK Stadium.
Bosman remained in baseball well past his playing days, serving as a pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles, Rangers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Currently, Bosman resides in Florida. According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Bosman spends his time rebuilding old cars into hot rods. He’s rebuilt about a dozen cars, including a 1946 Chevy he sold to former big-league pitcher Bobby Witt and a 1933 Ford he sold to current pitcher David Wells.
