Hawkins Loses a No-Hitter

July 1, 1990, old Comiskey Park. The Yankees were the visitors, so a Chicago win would end the game after eight. Andy Hawkins had not allowed a hit. In the eighth, with two out and the bases loaded, rookie catcher Jim Leyritz dropped Robin Ventura's fly in left. Three runs scored. Jesse Barfield, the right fielder, then lost Ivan Calderon's fly in the sun and dropped it. Ventura scored. The White Sox won, 4–0. Hawkins was the losing pitcher. Barry Jones got the win. The Yankees had three errors. Chicago had no hits.

At the time the game was treated as a no-hitter, the sixth of a season that had just produced two on the same night, by Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela, both of them wins. Hawkins had been close to release three weeks earlier.

In 1991 a committee under Commissioner Fay Vincent defined a no-hitter as nine innings or more. Games shorter than that became "notable achievements." Hawkins's line was removed from the list. The hits did not change. The name of the game did.