On to Coaching

Emerson's No Hitter As a Player

On April 22nd, Sean Menaea of the Oakland Athletics pitched a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox. In an amazing display of coincidence, Menaea pitched his no-hitter precisely 25 years to the day after the last no hitter was pitched against Boston. It was on April 22nd, 1993 by Chris Bosio of the Milwaukee Brewers. Scott Emerson is the pitching coach for the Oakland Athletics.As players themselves, both Scott Emerson and Chris Bosio finished their MLB careers as pitchers who were part of the Boston minor league system, each playing for the Sarasota Red Sox for one or two years between 1995 and 1997.Emerson, in '95 and '96, pitched for both the Sarasota Red Sox and the Trenton Thunder (another Boston system team). Bosio, in 1997, spent a year in the Red Sox system between Sarasota and the Gulf Coast Red Sox.While playing for the Red Sox system, neither player could rekindle (in the case of Bosio) or start (that of Emerson) a MLB career. Bosio had pitched on the biggest stage in baseball, with his 1993 no hitter being the defining single start of his career, but Emerson never made it officially to the majors, rising only to the AA level. Emerson would try one more time, but only managed 3 pitching starts for an Arizona minor league team.After finishing as players in the league, both Bosio and Emerson spent nearly a decade coaching or playing in different baseball leagues to each eventually emerge as pitching coaches in the majors.For Emerson, this meant being a part of the majors for the first time. Part of his journey there included serving as the pitching coach for the Sacramento River Cats in 2011 and 2012. Bosio had pitched for the team many years prior in 1986.Chris Bosio is now a pitching coach himself, and as a coach, he was recently part of another amazing feat of major league baseball. He helped guide the Cubs to win a World Series Championship in 2016. This ended a 108 year pennant drought for Chicago—the longest in the history of baseball.Until only recently, the Red Sox had no longer been part of the conversation of championship droughts when mentioning Chicago, Boston, or other cities. After Boston was finally able to "break the curse" in 2004, Cubs fans wondered if their team might be next.For Emerson, helping coach Manaea to a no-hitter was something he himself had managed to do late in his long career as player. It happened one year before moving into coaching. In 2010, Emerson pitched a no-hitter for the Neptune Scarlet Fliers of New Jersey. The format was 6-inning.A no-hitter nonetheless, but one nowhere near impressive as Bosio’s in 1993 against the Red Sox. Yet, it was a captivating performance that no doubt added something to his ability to coach the next pitcher who would throw a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox, 25 years to the day after the last pitcher to do it.