Bill Rohr

As a 21-year-old rookie pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 1967, Bill Rohr came within one strike of throwing a no-hitter in his Major League debut. No pitcher before or since has gone as far in a debut before giving up a hit since 1900. A week later he threw another complete game victory, also against the New York Yankees. Rohr never won another game for the Red Sox, but those two wins proved crucial as the Impossible Dream Red Sox won the pennant by a single game.

He was in Cleveland the next year as a reliever, and never pitched in the Majors again after June 1968. This is the story Bill Rohr, who shone so brightly for a brief moment and just as quickly disappeared from baseball. In one of the most storied seasons in franchise history, he lit the spark that ignited the Red Sox fan base for generations to come. Rather than bemoan what might have been, or spend a lifetime wondering about the historical no-hitter that got away, Rohr spent the next 50 years building a successful legal career in Southern California. The end of his baseball career was just the beginning of the rest of his life.

Join host Jon Brolin as he speaks with Bill Rohr about that magical day in 1967 and the life he built after.