perfect games (4CE reprint, sept 2010)

"Near Perfect"

On June 2, Armando Galarraga of the Tigers pitched a perfect game against the Indians, the 3rd perfecto in the Majors this season. There, I said it. If you're a baseball fan, you know what happened: ump blew the call at first, everybody knew it, he even admitted it later. I say: give the kid his perfect game. Since when can't you correct an obvious mistake? Since baseball, that's when! And I thought at the very least we were going to get some kind of instant replay out of this mess...so where is it?

Since I haven't written about our nation's pastime for a while, I thought I might remind you of 3 other infamous "near perfect" games, 2 duly heralded in baseball lore, and one you might have missed. But first, here's a quickie quiz, with the answer at the end of the column: if you pitch a perfect game, you allow no base-runners, yet your team could still have an error! How is this possible?

On June 23 1917, Boston's Babe Ruth walked the first Washington Senator he faced on 4 pitches. He argued with the ump, was ejected, and had to be escorted off the field by the police. Ernie Shore took the mound, and on his first pitch, the catcher threw the base-runner out at 2nd. Shore then retired the next 26 batters he faced. 27 up, 27 out, and Shore was on the mound for all of 'em. Perfect game? It used to be, now its listed simply as a combined no-hitter...more on that later in this article.

May 26, 1959, Pittsburgh at Milwaukee, and what many (including myself) consider the greatest pitched game in baseball history. Journeyman Harvey Haddix had a perfect game thru 9 innings. But the game was scoreless, so Haddix pitched 3 more perfect innings! Think of it: 36 up, 36 down. Then disaster stuck. Leading off the bottom of the 13th, Felix Mantilla reached on 3rd baseman Don Hoak's error. Sacrifice bunt by Eddie Mathews, intentional walk to Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock homered, but his hit was reduced by rule to a double when he passed Aaron on the base paths. Haddix lost 1-0, no perfect game, no no-hitter, no nuthin'. Altho I love what he always said: "I know what I did." And so do we, brother, so do we!

One that may have slipped thru the cracks: On June 3 1995, Pedro Martinez with the Expos had a perfect game thru 9 versus the Giants. But again, no score. Expos did score in the top of the 10th, but in the bottom Martinez yielded a lead-off double to Bip Roberts. Mel Rojas relieved, and retired the side. A perfect game for Pedro by the old rules, but not anymore...we're getting to that.

How many perfect games have been lost in the final at bat? The answer is 10, of which 8 were "clean," a base hit by the 27th batter. No doubt Yankee fans will recall Boston's Carl Everett and his 2-strike single off Mike Mussina in 2001. The other 2 finished up as no-hitters. On July 4 1908, Hooks Wiltse of the Giants hit the 27th Phillie he faced, settling for a 10-inning no-hit win. More controversial was the Cubs-Padres game of Sept 2 1972. The 27th batter, pinch-hitter Larry Stahl, worked the count full against Chicago's Milt Pappas, then walked on a borderline pitch. Pappas got his no-hitter, but never forgave the ump, who happened to be sophomore Bruce Froemming, who went on to umpire 35 more years, and call 10 more no-hitters.

Now losing a perfect game or even a no-hitter in the 9th inning is a tough break. Losing it long after the game is over sounds nuts, but on Sept 4 1991, 50 no-hitters disappeared from the record books, as Fay Vincent’s Committee for Statistical Accuracy re-defined a no-hitter. The old rule was: after 9 innings, the meter stopped running and your no-hitter was in the books, no matter what happened in extra innings. The committee changed that: however many extra innings the game went, it had be hitless (or perfect) for all of them or no cigar. This has some logic to it, but there was logic to the old way too. 12 such no-hitters were expunged. The new rule also required a minimum of 9 innings, thus dumping 38 more, including 3 "perfect games" that went only 5 innings, and one that went 7.

I think the 9-inning no-hitters should have stayed. Some players lost the only no-hitter they had. Or take the case of Jim Maloney (who should be in the Hall of Fame!) He was formerly credited with 3 no-hitters: one of 9 innings, one of 10 innings, and one that was hitless thru 10, hit in the 11th. Now of course he only has 2. Both those 10-inning hitless efforts came in 1965, a little over 2 months apart. Pretty smooth if you ask me.

I do agree that those less-than-9-inning no-hitters deserved to go, especially one by the Giants' Mike McCormick on June 12 1959. He pitched 5 hitless innings against the Phillies, then allowed a hit in the 6th. The game was called due to rain, with official stats reverting back to the 5th, and thus a no-hitter for Mike! Now in all fairness, this wasn't his fault, but talk about a cheapie!

But worst of all is the case of a visiting pitcher losing a game, and since the home team didn't bat in the 9th, pitching only 8 innings, but at the same time allowing no hits! 3 such games were wiped out in the 1991 purge, including Yankee Andy Hawkins' weird 4-0 no-hit loss to Chicago in 1990. In 1992 Matt Young also lost an 8-inning no-hitter on the road, 2-1 to Boston. Mind you, in such a case the pitcher IS credited with a complete game! Common sense says that's a no-hitter.

Then you have what I call a "back-end perfect game." This is where the pitcher surrenders a hit to the lead-off batter, then retires the next 27. It's not mentioned anywhere in the record book, obviously, but it's happened 3 times: Robin Roberts (Cin-65), Jerry Reuss (SF-80), and Jim Bibby (Atl-81). Wild, no?

Finally, on another stat entirely: I know of only 2 players to hit 20+ homers in a season, but fail to have at least twice as many RBIs: Kevin Maas 21/41 (Yanks-90) and Chris Duncan 22/43 (Cards-06). (Mark McGwire's half-season with the Cards in 1997, he was 24/42, but he had enough RBIs with Oakland to make up for it.). For 30+, closest appear to be Rob Deer 32/64 (Detroit-92) and Hanley Ramirez 33/67 (Miami-08.)

QUIZ ANSWER: An error is defined as a fielding muff that results in either the batter getting on base, or his time at bat being prolonged. That second part is just a fancy way of saying an error can be given on a foul ball, for example, an easy pop foul that drops out of the first baseman's glove. E3, but no base-runner, hence perfect game! Till next time, watch that invisible man on 3rd, and rock on!

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