Dick Fowler (baseball)
Richard John Fowler was a Canadian professional baseball player. Born in Toronto, Fowler was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who appeared in 221 total games pitched—170 of them starts —for the Philadelphia Athletics. He batted and threw right-handed was listed as tall and .
In his ten-season career, Fowler posted a 66–79 record with 11 shutouts, 75 complete games, 382 strikeouts, and a 4.11 ERA in 1,303 innings pitched, allowing 1,367 hits and 578 bases on balls. He pitched over 200 innings each year from 1946 to 1949, and pitched all 16 innings of a 1–0 loss to the St. Louis Browns in 1942.
During World War II, he served with the 48th Highlanders of Canada regiment in the Canadian Army, whose members wear kilts as part of their ceremonial dress.
Fowler threw a nine-inning 1–0 no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns at Shibe Park on September 9, 1945, in his first start in three years and his first major league shutout. Fowler allowed four bases on balls and faced 29 batters, two over the minimum. He was aided by two double plays. The no-hitter was the first by an Athletics' hurler since. It was the first MLB no-hitter ever pitched by a Canadian-born pitcher. The second would not occur until May 8, 2018, when the Seattle Mariners' James Paxton, a native of British Columbia, threw a no-hit gem—ironically, in Toronto against the Blue Jays.
Dick Fowler died from kidney and liver ailments at the age of 51 in Oneonta, New York, on May 22, 1972 and last worked as hotel clerk.
Fowler was posthumously named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in the Class of 1985.
