More than 8,000 men have taken the mound in a big league game, but what pitcher Johnny Vander Meer accomplished more than three quarters of a century ago by tossing back-to-back no-hitters is considered by many one of the game’s most unbreakable records.

At the start of the 1938 season, the 23-year-old Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds, who consistently had trouble controlling his fastball throughout his career, was still an unproven hurler. Though he had experienced success in the minors, such as when won 19 games and struck out 295 batters for the Piedmont League’s Durham Bulls in 1936, he had yet to establish himself at the big league level. He had made his big league debut the previous season with mediocre results and was soon sent back to the minors.

While the Reds were cautiously optimistic regarding Vander Meer’s chances of success in 1938 – what would be the young southpaw’s first full season in the majors - no one foresaw the mid-June pair of events that was about to shock and amaze the baseball world.

“Double No-Hit,” as Vander Meer would soon be nicknamed, began his remarkable stretch on June 11 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, walking three while striking out four and allowing no hits and no runner past first base in a 3-0 win against the Boston Bees. Four days later, on June 15, Vander Meer walked eight and struck out seven while holding the Dodgers hitless in a 6-0 triumph in the first night game at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.