Johnny Vander Who?

–Anthony Camerano/AP Photo

Seventy years ago, a

National League pitcher

set a major league

record that has never

been broken.

by David Neal Keller

John Vander Meer’s love of baseball began when he won a baseball in a first-grade spelling bee. Soon, he found himself playing first base in games with friends in Midland Park, New Jersey. When the older boys discovered that he had an extraordinarily strong arm, they invited

him to pitch. “The opposing players never got a hit off of me that first day on the mound,” he recalled later. “They couldn’t, because I walked them all.”

In August 1928, shortly after completing the eighth grade, Johnny became convinced that contributing to a modest family income overshadowed the need for further formal education, so