JOHNSTOWN — Records are set. Records are broken.

That’s baseball.

But Amsterdam (N.Y.) pitcher Roger Bowman set a standard in the inaugural AAABA Tournament in 1945 that won’t be broken.

Bowman had a tournament-record 71 strikeouts in 271/3 innings.

Incredibly, Bowman had a single-game record 24 strikeouts – twice in the same tournament. Bowman struck out 22, 24 and 24 in three complete games. He faced only one batter in his other appearance for the tournament-champion Rugmakers and, appropriately, struck him out.

Bowman and Amsterdam were helped by a few rainouts that enabled the left-handed hurler to get just enough rest to dominate.

He started his run with a 22-strikeout, four-hit 5-1 victory over Baltimore at Lorain-Moxham on Aug. 22, 1945.

Four days later, Bowman fanned 24 Towson batters in a 10-2, five-hit win at the Point.

The Rugmakers lost 9-3 to Schenectady when Bowman played right field on Aug. 27.

But on Aug. 28, Bowman was back on the mound, but only briefly. When the Rugmakers took a big early lead against Towson in the semifinals, the Amsterdam manager decided to pull Bowman after he struck out the only batter he faced in that game. Amsterdam won 11-3 with Bowman in the outfield.

A crowd estimated at 1,200 was at the Point to watch another Bowman gem in the title game against Schenectady.

Bowman struck out 24 of the 31 batters he faced in a two-hitter. He walked one batter and one man reached on an error.

The lefty struck out 14 of the first 15 batters he faced in the 10-0 victory.

Bowman earned the 1945 Point Stadium Award for his performance, and during an interview 51 years later, he said the trophy still was displayed on the desk of his upholstery business in Los Angeles.

“As I recall, the strikeout record wasn’t any big thing for us, except that we were proving ourselves against guys from out of town,” Bowman said in 1996. “It was more of a team thing. We won the tournament.”

Bowman pitched in the major leagues from 1949-52 with the New York Giants and 1953 and 1955 with the Pirates. His career record was 2-11 and he struck out 75 major league batters in 50 career games, or only four more than he did in one AAABA Tournament.

The AAABA Hall of Fame inducted Bowman in 1995. He died on July 21, 1997 in Los Angeles, but is buried in his hometown of Amsterdam.

With today’s pitch counts and deeper tournament staffs, Bowman’s marks likely never will be touched.

In 66 tournaments, the closest anyone has been to either of Bowman’s records was only five years later, when Johnstown’s Ray Rizzo tossed three complete games in as many days and finished with 27 innings in the 1950 tournament. Rizzo entered the AAABA Hall of Fame on Saturday.



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No-no: Last August, Delweld pick-up player Drew Shaulis tossed the first no-hitter in the AAABA Tournament since 1973.

Shaulis, a left-hander, tossed his no-no in a 4-1 victory over Johnstown’s second representative, Martella’s Pharmacy. A crowd of 6,500 watched the elimination game at Point Stadium.

Pirates fans might have recognized one of the names involved in Baltimore Johnny’s Auto Sales’ combined no-hitter in the 1973 tournament, which had been the last no-hitter until Shaulis’ gem.

Joe Kerrigan (five innings) and Charles Porter (four innings) combined to no-hit Newark in a 20-0 rout on opening day at Miller field in Westmont.

Kerrigan had been in his third season as the Pirates pitching coach until he was fired by manager John Russell last week.

In that 1973 tournament, Kerrigan was solid in his limited appearances at the plate, too.

He went 2-for-3 (.667) in four games. But Kerrigan was more of a presence on the mound, going 2-1 with a 0.00 ERA, 12 strikeouts and six walks in 12 innings during four appearances for the 1973 tournament champions. That year was Baltimore’s sixth AAABA title. The franchise has added 20 more to its collection since then and will be in the title round today.



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More no-no’s: The current AAABA record book still needs to be updated with Shaulis’ no-hitter, which was the sixth in AAABA Tournament history.

The others are: Hugh Waln, Washington (1950; 1-0 over Johnstown); Arnold Umbach, Birmingham (1960; 5-0 over Johnstown); Howie Stethers, Washington (1960; 8-0 over Baltimore); Bob Grossman, Washington (1969; 8-0 over Marland State); and Kerrigan/Porter, Baltimore (1973;

20-0 over Newark).