#Shortstops: White hat

History would be made at 35th and Shields on April 18, 2007, in an early-season game between the Chicago White Sox and the Texas Rangers. On this seemingly uneventful frigid April day in the city of Chicago, Mark Buehrle would toss the 16th no-hitter in franchise history and first since Wilson Álvarez in August 1991.

No one was surprised that Buehrle would go nine innings. In his 16-year career, he pitched an incredible 3,283.1 innings. He was also known as a quick worker. Buehrle, amazingly, would only need an eye-popping two hours and three minutes to no-hit the Rangers.

Buehrle began his day by getting Rangers center fielder Kenny Lofton to hit into a weak 4-3 putout. From there, Buehrle was unhittable. Offensively, the White Sox would get on the board in the home half of the third thanks to a home run by future Hall of Famer Jim Thome to give Buehrle the only run he would need.

The Rangers would get their only baserunner in the fifth as Sammy Sosa walked. But he was promptly picked off by Buehrle.

The White Sox led 6-0 when Buehrle took the mound to start the ninth. He would get Gerald Laird to ground out to third base to end the game. Buehrle would end the game with eight strikeouts and the one walk to Sosa, the only blemish on an otherwise perfect game. Buehrle would eventually get his perfect game two years later against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum preserves the White Sox cap that Mark Buehrle wore that day.

Nicholas DiGrispino was the 2022 library research intern in the Hall of Fame’s Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Youth Leadership Development