17 Facts About Perfect Games
History and Trivia About Baseball's Top Pitching Achievement
Everything you need to know about the perfect game. Well, almost.
A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches first base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any other reason—in short, a perfect game is "27 up, 27 down".
There have been only 17 perfect games thrown in baseball history, making it one of the rarest accomplishments in the game. To keep in line with the number of perfectos that have been tossed in history, here are 17 important facts and anecdotes about the perfect game.
1. The first perfect game was thrown by on June 12, 1880 by John Lee Richmond of the Wocester Worcesters against the Cleveland Blues. (By the way, has anyone ever heard of either of those teams?)
2. The first perfect game pitched during baseball's modern era (which started with the introduction of the American League in 1901) was hurled by none other than the great Cy Young, who accomplished the feat on May 5, 1904 against the Philadelphia Athletics while he was a member of the Boston Americans.
3. The New York Yankees have had the most pitchers throw perfect games, with three. Don Larsen did it in 1956, David Wells in 1998 and David Cone in 1999.
4. Larsen pitched baseball's only postseason perfecto in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Aside from the obvious difficulties of pitching so brilliantly in such a high pressure situation, Larsen's feat is even more impressive when one considers that the Dodgers had four future Hall of Famers in their lineup: Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Pee Wee Reese.
5. Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks threw the most recent perfect game. He did it on May 18, 2004 against the Atlanta Braves.
6. Johnson was 40 years and 256 days old on the day he tossed his perfecto, making him the oldest pitcher in history to do it.
7. Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959. Unfortunately for Haddix, his team didn't score a run, so the game continued until the bottom of the thirteenth inning, when he gave up a walk and a double. He lost the game 1-0. It was, by far, the most dominant pitching performance ever to result in a loss.
8. Charlie Robertson did it the earliest in his career. Robertson threw a perfecto in 1922 in just his fifth big league appearance, and his fourth start.
9. Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland A's had the most productive offensive game of any perfect game pitcher. He had three hits and three RBI.
10. David Wells, who pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees on May 12, 1998, attended the same high school as Don Larsen, who, as mentioned above, pitched a perfecto against the Dodgers in the '56 World Series.
11. David Cone's perfect game for the New York Yankees came on "Yogi Berra Day," when both Larsen and his perfect game battery mate Berra were in the stands.
12. Dennis Martinez is the only foreign born pitcher to hurl a perfect game. Martinez, who was born in Nicaragua, pitched his masterpiece as a member of the Montreal Expos on July 28, 1991.
13. Tom Browning became the only pitcher to ever throw a perfect game against the eventual World Series champ when he stopped the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988.
14. The most strikeouts ever recorded in a perfect game is 14 by Sandy Koufax on September 9, 1965.
15. Ron Hassey is the only player to catch two perfect games. He was behind the plate for Len Barker's 1981 gem and then repeated the feat when he caught Dennis Martinez's in 1991.
16. Addie Joss threw just 74 pitches in his 1908 perfect game. David Cone threw the second fewest pitches in perfect game history with 88.
17. Right fielder Paul O'Neill is the only player to have played on the winning team in three perfect games. He was on the field for the Cincinnati Reds when Tom Browning won his in 1988. He caught the final out (a fly ball) in David Wells's classic, and he doubled to help the Yankees win on David Cone's day of perfection.
Bonus Facts:
The seventeen pitchers to throw perfect games are: John Lee Richmond (1880), John Montgomery Ward (1880), Cy Young (1904), Addie Joss (1908), Charlie Robertson (1922), Don Larsen (1956), Jim Bunning (1964), Sandy Koufax (1965), Catfish Hunter (1968), Len Barker (1981),Tom Browning (1988), Dennis Martinez (1991), Kenny Rogers (1994), David Wells (1998), David Cone (1999), and Randy Johnson (2004).
Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees came within one strike of a perfect game, but Carl Everett ripped a single with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning to foil Mussina's flirtation with destiny.
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