On this date in 1973, KC Royals rookie Steve Busby hurls a 3-0 no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers in his 10th career start. It's the first no-no in Royals history, the first at Tiger Stadium since Virgil Trucks threw one in 1952, and — thanks to the AL's new Designated Hitter rule — the first one thrown by a pitcher who did not bat during the game.
Busby would go on to win 16 games in '73, while losing 15 and posting a 4.23 ERA with 105 walks and 174 Ks in 238.1 innings, good enough for third place in the '73 AL Rookie of the Year balloting. In 1974, he won 22 games and pitched another no-hitter, this time against the Brewers on June 19th. After winning another 18 in 1975, he was beset by ye olde shoulder and knee issues, and won only 11 more games before retiring at the end of 1980.
George "Doc" Medich, with whom Busby shared his 1973 Topps rookie card, had a pretty good '73 himself, going 14-9 with a 2.95 ERA, 74 walks and 145 Ks in 235 innings for the Yankees. In fact, Doc tied Busby in the AL ROY voting, which has to be some kinda oddity — how many times did two guys from the same rookie card actually have good first seasons, let alone good enough to TIE for third in the ROY vote?
Poor Dick Colpaert didn't exactly give Busby and Medich a run for their rookie money; in fact, he never even got a chance. Originally signed by the Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1961, Colpaert had been in the Pirates' organization for a decade at this point, getting his lone cup of coffee with the Bucs in the summer of 1970, when he went 1-0 with a 5.91 ERA in eight relief appearances. Pittsburgh sold him to Kansas City in November '72, and then the Indians plucked him from the Royals a few weeks later in the '72 Rule 5 draft. The Indians had him start the season with the Oklahoma City 89ers, but his 1-2, 5.62 ERA performance in 24 relief appearances didn't exactly inspire anyone in the Cleveland front office to bring him up from Triple-A. He finished the year in Hawaii (a merciful fate, all things considered), losing once and racking up a 9.00 ERA in 9 innings for the Hawaiian Islanders. Colpaert logged 16 more fruitless innings in '74 with the Pawtucket Red Sox, and that was it. He never pitched in the majors again.
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