APRIL 27, 1956: CARL THOMAS PITCHES SECOND STRAIGHT NO-HITTER
Arizona baseball coach Frank Sancet, football coach Warren Woodson and basketball coach Fred Enke all recruited 6-foot 5-inch, 245-pound Carl Thomas.
He was a three-sport star like few other recruits in UA history, although he made his mark as a two-way football player at Minneapolis Central High School.
Choosing to leave the cold winters of Minnesota, Thomas enrolled at Santa Ana Community College near Los Angeles. Sancet, Enke and Woodson all made a pitch for him. After a year at Santa Ana, Thomas moved to Tucson in the fall of 1953.
By the time he left, in June 1956, Thomas had pitched the Wildcats to back-to-back-to-back College World Series appearances and remains, arguably, the most dominating pitcher in school history.
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But it was his back-to-back no-hitters in April 1956 that most defined his excellence.
On April 21, Thomas pitched a no-hitter at ASU. He was one walk from a perfect game.
On April 27, he pitched another no-hitter, against UCLA. This time he walked six.
“I had some troubles out there, but my teammates helped me stick it out,” he told the Star. “It’s something I’ll always remember.”
How Thomas chose baseball at Arizona was something of a fluke.
“Carl came to Tucson on a baseball scholarship, but he had played basketball at Santa Ana , and he was a high school football star in Minneapolis,” his widow, Eunice Taylor, told me in 2013.
“The UA gave him a job hashing for the football team at the stadium dormitory. Well, he got tired of doing it and said, ‘If I play football, I won’t have to feed them anymore, they’ll feed me.’ So he did.
“After the football season, (basketball coach) Fred Enke told Carl he wanted him to play basketball. Carl planned to, but at the last minute he said, ‘I want to go home for Christmas.’ Coach Enke wouldn’t let him, so he stuck to baseball.”
Combining with lefty Donnie Lee to create the most formidable pitching twosome in school history, Thomas left this kind of a mark on UA baseball:
• He remains No. 1 in school history in career strikeouts, with 422.
• He remains No. 1 with fewest hits allowed over nine innings, 5.4.
• He is No. 2 in victories, 35.
• He is No. 2 in winning percentage, .875.
• He is No. 2 in complete games, 35.
• He is No. 5 in strikeouts per nine innings, 10.5.
He even drove in seven runs in a game at the College World Series, helping to beat Oregon 12-1, in 1954.
After Thomas’ no-hitter against UCLA in 1956, a Philadelphia Phillies scout arranged a “secret tryout” that night. The Wildcats swept the Bruins in a doubleheader that day (Lee shut out UCLA 10-0 and pitched a one-hitter). The scout said Thomas and Lee had a “blank check” if they’d sign.
But after thinking it over, Thomas and Lee declined because the Phillies were awful and desperate for young pitchers.
“We couldn’t let our teammates down,” Lee once told me.
They stayed for the remainder of the season and pitched Arizona to the national championship game. Ironically, they lost to Minnesota, whose lead player was shortstop Jerry Kindall, who would coach Arizona to 1976, 1980 and 1986 national championships.
Where are they now: Thomas died in Scottsdale in 2013. He was 80. He pitched in just four MLB games, in the Cleveland organization, and was 51-49 in the minor leagues. He retired from baseball in 1962 and worked for the Phoenix Cement Co. and other concrete-related businesses in Phoenix.
How he did it: Thomas became close friends, and regular handball partners and fishing buddies, with ASU Hall of Fame coaches Bobby Winkles, Frank Kush and Baldy Castillo.
“Carl had a lot of respect for the Sun Devils, but he loved the Wildcats,” his widow, Eunice, told me. “That’s where his heart was.”
Thomas was buried in Eunice’s family cemetery plot in the Chiricahua Mountains near Douglas.
