Bo Belinsky (b. Robert Belinsky,December 7, 1936, New York City – d.November 23, 2001, Las Vegas, Nev.) was a baseball pitcher who had a Major League record of just 28-51, but threw the first no-hitter in the history of the Los Angeles Angels, beating the Baltimore Orioles 2-0 on May 5, 1962. It was Belinsky's fourth consecutive win to start his rookie season; he would be 5-0, then 7-1, before finishing the season with a 10-11 won-lost record, a 3.56 earned run average, and the league lead in bases on balls (122), the only time Belinsky ever led his league in any pitching category. December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey 2001 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Baseball is a team sport, in which a fist-sized ball is thrown by a defensive player called a pitcher and hit by an offensive player called a batter with a round, smooth stick called a bat. ... A baseball pitcher delivers the ball to home plate In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitchers mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter who attempts to either make contact with it or draw a... In baseball and softball, a no-hit game (more commonly known as a no-hitter) refers to a contest in which one of the teams has prevented the other from getting an official hit during the entire length of the game, which must be at least 9 innings by the... For the Pacific Coast League franchise see: Los Angeles Angels (PCL). ... The Baltimore Orioles are a Major League Baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. ... May 5 is the 125th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (126th in leap years). ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

After the no-hitter, Belinsky said, famously enough, "If I'd known I was gonna pitch a no-hitter today, I would have gotten a haircut." Perhaps more tellingly, however, Belinsky also said, "If music be the food of love, by all means let the band play on." Raised mostly in Trenton, New Jersey, a street rat and one-time pool hustler who was known notoriously enough for his night life even before he made the majors in 1962, Belinsky's rookie no-hitter climaxed a raucous season in which he was already glittering copy for southern California sportswriters with his wit and unapologetic womanising. "Within days of his no-hitter Belinsky would be heralded as sport's most original and engaging playboy-athlete," pitcher-turned-journalist Pat Jordan wrote in a striking 1971 Sports Illustrated profile. "His name would become synonymous with a lifestyle that was cool and slick and dazzling . . . But in time the name Belinsky would become synonymous with something else. It would become synonymous with dissipated talent."

Belinsky became a kind of protege to fading but still influential and show business-connected newspaper columnist Walter Winchell; he was linked romantically, at one time or another, to such beauties as Ann-Margret, Connie Stevens, Tina Louise and Mamie Van Doren, the latter his fiancee for a year. Contemporary player Mike Hegan once said, "Bo had more fun off the field than he did on the field." Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972), an American newspaper and radio commentator, invented the gossip column at the New York Evening Graphic. ... Ann-Margret Ann-Margret (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish-born actress and singer. ... Connie Stevens Connie Stevens (born August 8, 1938) is an American actress and singer. ... Tina Louise (born February 11, 1934) is an American film and television actress. ... Mamie Van Doren Mamie Van Doren (born February 6, 1931) is an American actress and sex symbol. ...

And it took the inevitable toll on the field. Belinsky fell to 1-7 in 1963 and earned a farming out to the Angels' minor league team in Hawaii, where he pitched his way back and finished the year with a 2-9 major league record. But Belinsky was 9-7 with a career-best 2.86 ERA in August 1964 when came the incident that ended his days with the Angels: a hotel room fight with elderly Los Angeles Times sportswriter Braven Dyer. Belinsky was suspended from the Angels, then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after the season. After spending a little over a season with the Phillies, in which he was used mostly as a long reliever before his release to the minor leagues, Belinsky also pitched for the Houston Astros, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds, before his career ended in the Cincinnati minor league system in 1970. 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Los Angeles Times (also LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the western United States. ... Philadelphia Phillies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team based in Houston, Texas. ... The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

"What was clear," Jordan wrote, "was that Belinsky had dissipated a promising career, that people had grown tired of him, and that most of the problem could be traced to his personality. He did not have the knack of such later athletes - the (Joe) Namaths, (Ken) Harrelsons, and (Derek) Sandersons - of cultivating his personality precisely up to, but not beyond, that point at which the public became bored with it."

Belinsky married and divorced Playboy Playmate of the Year Jo Collins, then heiress Janie Weyerhaeuser. He eventually overcame alcoholism to become first a counselor and spokesman for the alcohol abuse program he entered in Hawaii and, then, an auto agency representative in Las Vegas. Clean, sober, and a born-again Christian ("Can you imagine," he was quoted as saying, "finding Jesus Christ in Las Vegas?"), Belinsky battled bladder cancer before his death of an apparent heart attack at age 64. Playboy is an adult entertainment magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. ... Polish propaganda poster saying: Stop drinking! Come with us and build happy tomorrows. ... This article is about the city of Las Vegas in Nevada. ... Cystoscopic view of a papillary bladder tumor (top); the bladder wall is visible on the bottom right Bladder cancer refers to any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

Veteran sportswriter Maury Allen wrote a biography of Belinsky, Bo: Pitching and Wooing, "with the uncensored cooperation of Bo Belinsky," in 1973.

I came to the Angels as a kid who thought he had been pushed around by life, by minor league baseball. I was selfish and immature in a lot of ways and I tried to cover that up. I went from a major league ballplayer to hanging onto a brown bag under the bridge, but I had my moments and I have my memories. If I had the attitude about life then that I have now, I'd have done a lot of things differently. But you make your rules and you play by them. I knew the bills would come due eventually, and I knew I wouldn't be able to cover them.---Bo Belinsky to Ross Newhan, in The Anaheim Angels: A Complete History.