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Vida Blue's the best-known name on this list; he threw his MWL no-hitter on June 19, 1968 for Burlington (then an A's farm club). Other recognizable names are Dennis Ribant (July 2, 1961, for Quad Cities [Braves]), Sid Monge (May 4, 1971, for Quad Cities [Angels]), Dennis Leonard (July 15, 1972, for Waterloo [Royals]), and Dontrelle Willis (May 1, 2002, for Kane County [Marlins]).
On May 30, 1965, Quincy's Chris Heintz (relieved by Dave Langrock; Cubs farmhands) and Waterloo's Darrel Bunge (Red Sox) both shut down their opponents without hits.
Clinton and Burlington were involved in no hitters on consecutive days in 1996: On August 4, Jim Sak and Todd Bussa of Clinton (Padres) beat the Bees; the next day, Jason Grote of Burlington (Giants) beat the LumberKings. Both games were played at Clinton's Riverview Stadium.
Six of these games were perfect: Vern Orndorff of Decatur (June 20, 1961; 7 innings; Tigers), Dennis Ribant of Quad Cities (July 2, 1961; 9 innings; Braves), Abelino Pena of Burlington (July 20, 1975; Brewers), Bob Link of Waterloo (July 25, 1985; Indians), Scott Dunn of Clinton (August 3, 2000; Reds), and Chris Coughlin of Burlington (June 30, 2004). Note that Orndorff and Ribant pitched their gems within a few days.
Mount Vernon's Stanley Burat threw his September 4, 1951 no hitter during the first round of the championship playoff. It wasn't enough; the (independent) Kings won the first round, but got shut down in the championship set.
Four South Bend (Arizona) pitchers--Greg Valera, Jose Valverde, Tim Stanton, and Bret Prinz--combined to shut down the Peoria Chiefs on April 21, 2000. Four Chiefs--James Russell, Chris Siegfried, Matt Maradeo, and Jose Ceda--combined to shut down Beloit on August 25, 2007.
No pitcher's thrown two no hitters in our league. Jon Mielke discovered that the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball credits no hitters to David Sartain (Kenosha [Twins]) in 1992 and 1993, but they are obviously the same game, and the 1993 listing is an error.
Nineteen of the gems on this list were thrown by pitchers assigned to Clinton.
From 1954 through 1985, most MWL no-hitters were thrown in 7 inning contests, with an occasional 9 inning game. Before and after those years, the normal no-hitter was a 9 inning game except for the odd 7-inning outing, though there was a flurry of short games in 2000. A handful, naturally, have had odd lengths.
Four MWL pitchers, Chris Heintz (relieved by Dave Langrock; for Quincy [Cubs], May 30, 1965), Larry Bracco (Clinton [Tigers], May 3, 1972), Gary Trumbauer (Cedar Rapids [Cardinals], August 2, 1972), and Wade Davis (Southwest Michigan [Devil Rays], August 31, 2006), allowed no hits but lost their games. All the losses were by 1-0 scores. Davis' game occurred on the last day the franchise played in Battle Creek.
Although two or three no hit games per year is the league norm, the range is from none (seven seasons, most recently 1995) to seven (1972 and 2000). For some reason, most years in the 1980s had exactly one no hitter.
The most lopsided win? The Lansing Lugnuts (Cubs) trounced the Dayton nine by a 15 to 0 margin with Justin Jones doing the honors with help from Weston O'Brien and Mark Carter on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003. Third baseman Donnie Hood hit for the cycle.
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