In fake baseball there was a guy named Alva "Bobo" Holloman who had a brief big-league career. He pitched for the old St. Louis Browns; his entire big-league career lasted less than a full season. He went 3-7 with a 5.23 ERA. But he's still remembered to some degree today, because in his first big-league start, on 6 May 1953, he pitched a no-hitter. Bobo Holloman is probably the worst pitcher in history to throw a no-hitter.
Does the WBA have its own version of Bobo Holloman? As a matter of fact, it does. His name is Gideon Zamosh. Here's his story.
The Black Forest Foxes had three first-round picks in the rookie draft which followed the 2126 season. The team chose pitchers with each of those picks. How did it work out? Not too well. Those three pitchers provided the Foxes with a total of three career victories. Anyway, one of the three pitchers was Gideon Zamosh, who at the time was a hard-throwing 18-year-old kid from Israel.
Zamosh was assigned to the Rookie League (of course) and things did not go well there in his first season. He got hammered; even worse, his projected ratings went down. But the Foxes stuck with him. His projected ratings changed every year, from 8/6/6 to 8/5/4 to 8/6/4 to 9/6/4 to 9/6/5 to 9/5/5 to 9/5/4. But, whether his ratings were going up or down, Zamosh somehow kept getting people out. From 2128 through 2132, his ERA was under 3.00 every year.
When the rosters expanded in September 2132 it was decided to promote Zamosh to the big-league team in order to see what he could do. He showed something, all right. In Oslo on 1 October 2132, in his sixth big-league appearance, Gideon Zamosh pitched a no-hitter. He walked two men and struck out nine, including five of the last six hitters he faced. It was a thoroughly dominant performance.
Zamosh finished his big-league cameo with decent stats, a 3-2 record and a 3.52 ERA. He was expected to be in the big-league rotation the following spring.
It didn't happen. His ratings cratered (again). He spent the year in Triple-A, where he was 10-11 with a 4.43 ERA. He's 25 years old now and his chances of returning to the majors do not look good. Like his spiritual ancestor, Bobo Holloman, it appears that Gideon Zamosh will finish his career with a total of three big-league victories. It's amazing, really, how much these guys are alike. They both had big-league careers that lasted less than a full season. They both pitched no-hitters that came completely out of the blue. And they both racked up a career total of exactly three wins.
Anyway, because of that one shocking performance in St. Louis, Bobo Holloman managed to make a name for himself. And Gideon Zamosh did the same thing in Oslo 179 years later.
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