On July 15, 1876, powerhouse St. Louis Brown Stockings pitcher George Washington Bradley, a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, made sports history by hurling the very first official no-hitter in Major League Baseball history. Dominating the batter’s box against the Hartford Dark Blues, Bradley’s flawless defensive performance anchored a spectacular 2-0 victory during the inaugural season of the newly formed National League.
The intriguing historical caveat to Bradley’s milestone involves a rival pitcher named Joe Borden, who threw a verified no-hitter one year prior in July of 1875. However, because Borden’s athletic feat occurred in the National Association—the loose, chaotic professional organization that collapsed right before the strict, formal establishment of the National League in 1876—major league baseball archivists permanently awarded Bradley the official crown for pitching the first canonical no-hitter in MLB lore.
Image: George Washington Bradley c. 1876 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
