See…see…this is why I don’t give a crap about steroids “ruining the legitimacy of the records”. As long as officials routinely make an absolute joke of the game, are subject to absolutely zero accountability, and have the power to reject technological advances which would improve their performance…and everyone on every level seems to have quietly accepted all this…any talk of legitimacy or integrity or honor is hot air. I find it hilarious that the same fans who insist on spraying asterisks all over every number in sight shrug and say “Eh, whaddya gonna do?” when a pitcher is robbed of a perfect game or the wrong team wins the World Series.
I find it truly astounding that this man has never faced a serious challenge in his 30 years in the sport, not even from a young dirtbag who wanted that power and privilege for himself. Him leaving the sport means nothing, because with a system this messed up, there’s always a replacement, probably several. We’re going to be having the same conversations about the most incompetent officials in sports, the same gripes, the same calls for blood a decade from now. And a decade after that. And a decade after that. And a decade after that…
The heck with foul balls and pickoffs, this is why baseball is so boring.
That Tiger that threw a perfect game awhile back and his perfect game taken away due to human error. I find it astounding that even in that extreme situation, they couldn’t vote as a union or something to overturn a call.
It mattered a lot to that pitcher, who I think never maintained a high enough level to stay in the MLB.
Armando Galarraga. That should have been a career highlight for a mediocre pitcher.
The league should have overturned the call and declared it a perfect game, because it was a perfect game. 27 up and 27 down. Hell, the league could and should declare it a perfect game. Today. If an umpiring crew can overturn a bad call, there’s no reason the league can’t.
The thing is, I wonder if the blown call is actually to his benefit. He didn’t get an official perfect game, so he’s not in some MLB record book. In popular culture, though, having the perfect game taken away in the way that it was probably makes him more famous.
Don Larsen had a perfect game in the World Series. Apart from him and Galarraga, can you name any other pitcher who earned a perfect game?
David Wells and David Cone in back to back years for the Yankees.
Koufax had one for the Dodgers of course, I believe in the 60s and Kenny Rogers had one also for Texas, before coming to the Yankees to stink for us.
David Cone, David Wells, Felix Hernandez and a couple randos in 2012, Dennis Martinez in the late 80s, Pedro threw 9 perfect innings but lost it in extras, Randy Johnson. There was also some random As player that did it about 10 years ago - he got mad at A-Rod for walking across the mound one time.
That’s kinda my point; more people will remember Galarraga for the perfect game that wasn’t than most that actually were.
If there had been some contract bonus that would have paid him a million dollars for a perfect game, or some brass plaque in Cooperstown with his name on it, then there would be some reward for an official perfect game. In the memory and lore of baseball fans, he’s more famous than if the call had been correct.
I’m not saying the blown call was justified, or that he should be happy about it, just that all it really cost him was his name in a book, somewhere.
You have a point. You can buy baseballs signed by both Galarraga and the umpire, Jim Joyce. Who knows? Maybe they travel around the country doing re-enactments.
There have been 24 official perfect games in MLB history (that’s about 240,000 regular season games in total) If Galarraga’s game had counted, there would have been three perfectos in 2010 (Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay) and then three more in 2012 (Felix Hernandez, Philip Humber, Matt Cain.) That’s a pretty weird statistical blip.
The Wells and Cone perfect games came with their own weirdness. Consecutive years, both at home in Sunday afternoon games. Back then, I only watched the Yanks on weekends. I was having serious deja vu by the middle of Coney’s big day.
I think that’s fair. I certainly remember watching the Galarraga game while it was happening, and being so mad at the outcome. But I have no memory of even hearing about Phil Humber’s or Matt Cain’s. Certainly, Galarraga’s would have slotted into that category.
Not to mention the fact that David Wells and Larsen had both attended the same High School in San Diego (Pt. Loma) and both were hungover for their perfectos.
David Cone’s came on Yogi Berra day and Don Larsen threw the opening pitch to Yogi. As a small bonus, Cone used only 88 pitches, Yogi of course famously wore #8 and shared the retirement of the number 8 with Bill Dickey. He also got the Perfecto despite a 33 minute rain delay. As a bonus, when Cone got to the locker room, Yogi and Larsen were waiting at his locker to congratulate him.
This was the first regular season interleague no-hitter also. It came against the Expos. Of course the first interleague no-hitter was Larsen’s Perfecto over the Dodgers in the '56 World Series.
The perfecto I forgot about and should not have was last year Domingo Germán threw the 4th for the Yanks. This is the record for a team. It was at Oakland and only 12,479 were in attendance and as it was a late night game starting at 9:40pm here, most Yankee fans didn’t watch it.
Just for the record: We Phillies fans will never forget Jim Bunning’s perfecto pitched on Father’s Day in 1964. Why? It gets mentioned by the announcers every Father’s Day!
Also, the last time a regular season perfect game was pitched prior to Jim’s was 1922. How about that?
Man, I completely forgot about the German perfect game.
That’s pretty cool about Larsen throwing out the first pitch.
Here’s some more perfecto trivia: Ted Barrett was the home plate umpire for Cone game (1999) and Matt Cain’s gem (2012). Ron Hassey caught two perfect games: Len Barker in 1981 and Dennis Martinez in 1991.
Paul O’Neill is the only player to be on the winning team for three perfect games. He was with the Reds
playing right field for Tom Browning’s perfect game. He caught the last out of the Wells perfect game. He made a diving catch to save Cone’s perfect game.
A bunch of Tampa players, including Ben Zobrist, Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton, were on the losing side of three perfect games (2009,2010,2012.) That had to hurt.
I give Angel Hernandez credit for this: if it weren’t for him we would not have Kyle Schwarber’s phenomenal blow up. A word of warning - a few uses of the F word.
Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Len Barker, Mike Witt, Kenny Rogers, Roy Halladay, David Wells, David Cone, Mark Buerhle, Don Larsen, Dallas Braden, Catfish Hunter, Tom Browning, Dennis Martinez, King Felix, Matt Cain. I’m missing a few. Didn’t forget the weird cases of Harvey Haddix and Ernie Shore.
I’m proud that my fellow Atlantans, at the park that night that Johnson threw his perfecto against the Braves, gave him a standing ovation as he walked off the field.
The Big Unit. The place I was at - Anaheim - went nuts. The perfecto finished about half an hour before the game in Anaheim started, and they had it on every screen.
Randy Johnson was as great a pitcher as Sandy Koufax except he lasted twice as long. If anything he’s underrated.