For the first time - a perfect game was blemished by a wild pitch - a dropped/missed 3rd strike that allowed the runner to reach 1st (he was caught stealing later).
John Means of Baltimore faced the minimum 27 batters - getting a no-hitter - but missed the perfect game due to that wild pitch.
" On June 23, 1917, against the [Washington Senators], Babe Ruth started the game, walking the first batter, [Ray Morgan]. As newspaper accounts of the time relate, the short-fused Ruth then engaged in a heated argument with apparently equally short-fused home plate umpire [Brick Owens]. Owens tossed Ruth out of the game, and the even more enraged Ruth then slugged the umpire a glancing blow before being escorted off the field by a policeman; the catcher, [Pinch Thomas], was also ejected. Shore was brought in to pitch, coming in with very few warmup pitches. With a new pitcher and catcher, runner Morgan tried to steal and was thrown out, after which Shore then proceeded to retire the remaining 26 Senators without allowing a baserunner, earning a 4–0 Red Sox win. For many years the game was listed in record books as a “[perfect game]”, though now, officially, it is scored as a combined [no-hitter]. Following the game, Ruth paid a $100 fine, was suspended for ten games, and issued a public apology for his behavior."
He was the last survivor of the 1915-16 Red Sox World Series teams - he died in 1980.
Suppose Ruth had only thrown two pitches before getting tossed by the umpire, and then Shore came in and retired 27 in a row. Would that count as a perfect game?
Interesting question. It would be a perfect game as long as no opposing batter reached base. The question is whether it was achieved by just one pitcher, or a combination of pitchers.
I don’t know, but I suspect it’s considered a combination because the point of a perfect game is that a team does not allow any batter on the other team to get on base. Even if Ruth had thrown one pitch as long as the batter didn’t reach first base then he’s part of a combination of pitchers that did not allow a batter to reach first base.
The general rule when two pitchers face a single batter is that any result other than a walk or strike out is credited to the relief pitcher. A strike out is credited to the relief pitcher if he gets two strikes. So I think if the batter had two strikes when the pitcher was changed and he struck out, the strike out would be credited to the original pitcher and there would be no individual perfect game. Otherwise there would be.
