1989 Fleer, Andy Hawkins

#307 Andy Hawkins

The first card today is of Andy Hawkins. Andy was an average pitcher who pitched with three teams in a ten year career. He had a great season in 1985 when he won 18 games and posted a 3.15 ERA. Other than a couple more good seasons, most of his were either average or below-average.

But, in 1990 he did pitch a unique no-hitter. In a game against the White Sox, Andy threw 8 innings of no-hit ball. But, the Sox scored four times in the eighth on three errors and no hits to take a 4-0 lead. The Yankees failed to score in the top of ninth and that was the ballgame, since Chicago was the home team. So he threw a no-hitter, but lost by four. It doesn't get much crazier than that. Unfortunately, the no-hitter was taken away from him the following season because he didn't throw nine innings.

Like I said in the Keith Comstock post, Andy was the Oklahoma Redhawks pitching coach last season. I was kind of excited to have the chance to get his autograph. But a day or two before the game, the Rangers fired their pitching coach and Andy moved up to the big club as the interim pitching coach. About a month later, I went to a couple of Ranger games, but didn't get his autograph. At the second game, he was walking from the bullpen to the dugout and I asked if he would sign. He said that he had some things to do and that he had to change, but he would sign before the game started. I didn't wait around to see if he came out to sign, though. I had some other things to take care of. He is now the Rangers bullpen coach, so maybe I'll have another chance to get another autograph this coming season. Coincidentally, this '89 Fleer was one of the cards that I took with me to get signed.