A Perfect Baseball Game
A Truly Rare Accomplishment in the 134 Year History of Baseball
Imagine facing 27 batters in 9 innings, and getting every one of them out. No hits. No walks. No errors. No hit by pitcher. No batter gets on base, for any reason. This is a perfect game. In fact this accomplishment is so rare that there were only 17 before in the 134 year history of the professional Major League Baseball. But on July 23rd, 2009 Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect baseball game. Number 18.
A hit in baseball occurs when the batter reaches first base or any base from his baseball contact and there is no error by the defensive players. So a ball that gets past the first baseman even if he tried to get the ball but couldn't is considered a hit. A homerun is also considered a hit. But If the first baseman could have caught the ball. But made an error so the batter reaches base safely, then this is not considered a hit. So when talking about perfect games, one is in truly rarified territory.
The Best of the Best of the Best
Consider that some of the following big name pitchers didn't have one. Tom Seaver, won 311 games; he received the Cy Young award, and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But he didn't pitch a perfect game. Here are 10 other pitchers, all are considered the best of all time according to Seaver:
- 1 Walter Johnson
- 2 Christy Mathewson
- 3 Sandy Koufax
- 4 Lefty Grove
- 5 Cy Young
- 6 Bob Feller
- 7 Steve Carlton
- 8 Bob Gibson
- 9 Warren Spahn
- 10 Nolan Ryan
Of the players on this stellar list, onlySandy Koufaxand Cy Youngpitched perfect games.
What are the Odds a Perfect Game?
No hit games are also a rarity. In a no-hit game, the batter does not reach base due to a hit, but a batter can still reach base because of a walk, or an error, or a hit by pitcher. In a no-hit the pitcher may even lose the game, although that has rarely happened. But in a perfect game the losing team will have a score of 0.
In the world of sports the odds of making a hole in one has the approximately 8,200 to 1 on a average length par three hole tee. But Tiger Woods has 18 hole in ones. Seven have been in competition, and two on PGA tour events. He even got his first hole in one at age six.
In baseball, where one has to face 27 batters, each one with a batting average of about 32% for getting on base or 68% of not getting on base, this means that the odds are about 16,000 to 1 of pitching a perfect game. Those are some high odds indeed.
Mark Buehrle’s Perfect Game – Almost Wasn’t
So Mark Buehrel was in special territory. He had already pitched a no hit game in 2007. So getting to the ninth inning was special. There was so much to lose in such a short time. To be perfect near the end was nerve wracking. In the ninth inning, Mark Beuhrle threw the 105th pitch of the day toward Gabe Kapler of the Tampa Bay Rays. Kapler connected, solidly. It looked like a homerun. Out in left center field DeWayne Wise ran towards the ball’s location near the stands. Wise jumped and extended his right arm above the eight-foot wall. He hit the wall hard but caught the ball on the webbing of his glove. The force momentarily knocked out the ball out of the glove but Wise caught it and stumbled. As he was lying on his back he punched the air with his left hand which held the ball. He stood up and showed it to the crowd. And to Buehrle. The perfect game was saved. A great hit was stolen by a great catch to make a great save and a perfect game was recorded–number 18. 27 up, 27 down. Perfect!
Bob Buehrel
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