By John Marcase
The Town Talk

Ken Johnson sat on the trainer's table in the Houston Colt .45s locker room, an ice bag strapped to his leg.

Each teammate that would stop by had an encouraging word for the 6-foot-4, 230-pound side-winding pitcher.

Johnson had just pitched the game of his life.

In major league history, 196 men have thrown no-hitters, including Johnson, now 70.

Johnson's no-hitter came 40 years ago against the Cincinnati Reds, who had Joe Nuxhall on the mound that night in old Colt Stadium, a mosquito haven that provided temporary quarters for Houston's major league team until the Astrodome could be built next door.

But what sets Johnson's no-hitter apart from others was the reason why teammates came over to offer him words. It's why Nellie Fox, one of the all-time defensive greats at second base, was on the verge of tears and departed the stadium that night, telling Johnson, "I'm sorry."

Johnson was the losing pitcher in his no-hitter.

"Everybody was patting me on the back and saying, 'Hang in there, Kenny,' and here I am, I just pitched a no-hitter," said Johnson last week from the recliner in his den while watching the Astros play the Cardinals.

The game, while the greatest gem in Johnson's solid 10-year major league career, was typical of his 31/2 years in Houston.

"We felt that as a pitching staff, if you gave up one run, you had a chance to win," said Johnson. "If you gave up two runs, you had a chance to tie. And three runs, we'd probably lose. But it (was) still the big leagues."

Johnson went 32-51 in his Houston career, but had a 3.41 earned run average.

The year before his no-hitter, he finished 10th in the National League in ERA at 2.65. Don Drysdale finished ahead of him in ninth with a 2.63 ERA and Warren Spahn was seventh with a 2.60 ERA.

Drysdale won 19 games that year and Spahn 23; Johnson won 11, but only because he won his final five games.

Johnson won his first two games of the 1964 season to sport a seven-game winning streak heading into the April 23 matchup with Nuxhall and the Reds.

After walking Vada Pinson with two outs in the first inning, Johnson retired 11 straight batters before walking Bob Skinner in the fifth. Once again, Johnson found his groove, retiring the next 11 batters heading to the ninth inning.

And yes, he was aware of what has happening.

"I knew I had a no-hitter going," said Johnson. "It was nothing to worry about, because we still hadn't scored any runs. If we had some, I might have started worrying. I was just worried about winning the game."

Nuxhall, although he wasn't crafting a no-hitter, was just as strong as Johnson that night, allowing just five hits. In the seventh, Houston's first two batters got on base as Fox singled and Pete Runnels reached on an error, but cleanup hitter Johnny Weekly hit into a 6-5-6 double play, erasing Fox and Runnels. Bob Aspromonte followed by flying out to end the inning.

In the eighth, Wynn led off with a double, but Nuxhall retired the next three batters as the Colt .45s and Reds went to the ninth scoreless.

Johnson's wife, Lynn, and two sons - Ken Jr., now a Pineville doctor, and Rusty, a local accountant -- were among the 5,426 in attendance that night.

It was the first game Lynn had attended that season, leaving their three-month-old daughter Janet with a babysitter.

"I knew it was close," Lynn said. "Every inning he would get them out. I was getting pretty nervous.

"Our youngest son, Rusty, wanted to go to the bathroom, and I wouldn't let him leave."

The top of the ninth began fine for Johnson, getting Nuxhall to ground to third for the first out. That brought up Pete Rose, who bunted. Johnson quickly fielded the bunt and fired wildly to first, allowing Rose to take second on the error, a point of contention for Nuxhall.

"I always say we had one hit," said Nuxhall, now in his 37th and final year as a broadcaster for the Reds. "Pete Rose beat out a bunt, but they charged Ken with an error. That always stuck in my mind."

Johnson, naturally, disagrees.

"There's no question in my mind, if I make a good throw, Pete's out," said Johnson, who called his throw to first the best sinker he threw that night. "Pete Rose's hustle was what made me throw it away."

Chico Ruiz followed. He hit the ball hard, and it ricocheted off Johnson's shin to third baseman Bob Aspromonte, who quickly fired to first for the second out as Rose took third.

Next, center fielder Vada Pinson hit a routine grounder to Fox. As John Wilson of the Houston Chronicle wrote about the play, "the 16-year veteran would have been the man, given a choice, you would have had the most confidence in to handle the important out."

But Fox bobbled the grounder and his throw to first was late as Rose scored the winning run. Frank Robinson then flied out to end the top of the ninth.

One run, no hits, two errors and one left on base.

"I told Nellie, your error wouldn't have meant anything if I hadn't made that error," said Johnson.

In the bottom of the ninth, Nuxhall struck out Eddie Kasko and induced Fox to ground out. Although Runnels reached on an error, Weekly was called out on strikes, instantly making Johnson an answer to one of baseball's great trivia questions.

"Pete Runnels asked me, 'How many no-hitters were thrown last year? Who threw them? They'll remember yours,'" said Johnson.

For his no-hitter, Johnson got a $1,000 pay raise and a trip to New York to appear on CBS' "I've Got A Secret" show hosted by Garry Moore. But it didn't take long after his game for the reality of what had happened to sink in.

"Kenny made a quote on the way home, 'Daddy, it's not fair. You pitched a no-hitter and lost," said Johnson.

"I felt sorry for Ken in a sense," admitted Nuxhall. "I don't feel there was anything special about it, other than that's why you show up. When you go to the ballpark, you go to win.

"It's a nine-inning game. There's no clock on the wall. Good old baseball, you have to play nine innings."

But let the record show, Nuxhall, despite being the youngest pitcher in major league history when he made his debut at age 17 in 1944, and compiling a 135-117 record with a 3.90 ERA, never pitched a no-hitter.

Neither has Roger Clemens, despite 313 victories and a record six Cy Young awards.

Johnson has, and thanks to a rule enacted by baseball several years ago, no other pitcher in history can pitch a losing no-hitter.

"I guess everybody likes to say they've done something nobody else can, and you don't want anyone to lose a no-hitter," said Johnson, who in his next start, gave up a leadoff single to the Dodgers Maury Wills.

But Johnson would rather be just one of the 196 men to have thrown no-hitters in the majors than the one who lost.

"I'd rather have won," Johnson said, admitting to having watched Yogi Berra jump into Don Larsen's arms after Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series and wishing to have repeated the scene with his rookie catcher, Jerry Grote, that night 40 years ago. "Instead of the notoriety, I'd rather have won the game."

Today, Johnson, who followed his sons from his native West Palm Beach, Fla., to Pineville when they began playing baseball at Louisiana College, where he later served as an assistant coach, is an active member of Pineville's First Baptist Church, where he operates a homebound and nursing home ministry.

During those visits, there are times his exploits in the majors are discussed.

And he had quite a career, compiling a 91-106 record with a 3.46 ERA. Johnson also hit two home runs and played in the 1961 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds.

"There are people who like to hear about it," he said. "A nurse will introduce me as having thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues."

And, he adds, smiling, "Of course, they leave out I lost the game."