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| Cy Young |
by Richard Edfeldt
The Bible says that
nobody’s perfect (Romans 3:23) but I know of twenty-four men that have been
perfect … well, at least for the period of one baseball game.
According to major
league baseball records there have been only twenty-three men who have pitched
a perfect baseball game in the entire 130+ years in the sport of baseball. That
means that no player on the opposing team got a hit or even reached base on the
pitcher during the entire nine inning game. In other words, he faced the
minimum number of players that you can in a nine inning game – 27 – and they
all either struck out, flied out, or grounded out – and he receives credit for
the victory. To give a little
perspective on this accomplishment – there have been more men who have circled
the moon than have pitched a perfect game!
Now, two of the
perfect games were pitched in the 1880 and oddly enough, they were played within
five days of each other. They were
pitched by John Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs, who pitched a 1-0
victory over the Cleveland Blues and Monte Ward, whose Providence Grays beat
the Buffalo Bisons 5-0. There has been some debate as to whether or
not these two games should even be included on the list of perfect games
pitched because the rules of the game were fundamentally different during this
era. For instance, pitches were
thrown underhanded (the pitcher's hand could not rise above his belt) and the
pitching mound was only 45 feet away from home plate. On top of that, it
took eight balls to receive a base on balls, hitters were not awarded first
when hit by a pitch, and few fielders used gloves (resulting in many more
errors than the modern game). But if you ask me, that different set of rules made
a perfect game pitched that much more elusive.
As the game evolved
into the 1900’s, there were thirteen perfect games pitched throughout this
century of baseball, involving over two hundred thousand games played:
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| Sandy Koufax |
- Cy Young, of the Boston Americans, beat the Philadelphia A’s, 3 to 0
on May 5, 1904. He was one of the most consistent and durable pitchers the
game has ever known, winning 511 games. The annual award given to the best
pitcher is named in his honor.
- Addie Joss, of the Cleveland Naps, probably
pitched the most perfect game by using only 74 pitches (that’s less than nine
pitches an inning) to beat the Chicago White Sox, 1 to 0 on October 2, 1908.
- Charlie Robertson, in only his third major
league start, led his team, the Chicago White Sox, to a 2 to 0 win over the
Detroit Tigers, on April
30, 1922.
- Thirty-four years later, on October 8, 1956, the most famous perfect game
was pitched. Don Larsen, of the New York Yankees, beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2
to 0, in game 5 of the World Series. The Yankees went on to win the series 4
games to 3.
- Jim Bunning, of the Philadelphia Phillies, beat
the New York Mets, at Shea Stadium, 6 to 0, on June 21, 1964. Bunning was the first
pitcher since Cy Young to win over 100 games or to strike out over 1,000
players in each league.
- Sandy Koufax struck out the most batters in a
perfect game, 14, in leading his Los Angeles Dodgers over the Chicago Cubs, 1
to 0, on September
9, 1965.
- Catfish Hunter was the youngest pitcher in the
modern era, age 22, to pitch a perfect game on May 8, 1968. His Oakland A’s beat the
Minnesota Twins, 4 to 0.
- It took 13 years before the next perfect game
was pitched. On May
15, 1981, Len Barker, of the Cleveland Indians, beat the Toronto
Blue Jays, 3 to 0. Barker led the majors in strikeouts two straight years but
ended with an overall losing record.
- On the last day of the 1984 baseball season, on
September 30th, Mike Witt, of
the California Angels, beat the Texas Rangers, 1 to 0, to win his perfect game.
- Four years later, Tom Browning pitched his
Cincinnati Reds to a 1 – 0 home field victory at Riverfront Stadium over the
Los Angeles Dodgers, on September 16, 1988. He also missed becoming the first Major League pitcher to hurl two perfect
games, taking another bid into the ninth on July 4, 1989.
- Dennis Martinez was the first Latin American to
pitch a perfect game, leading his visiting Montreal Expos to a 2 to 0 victory
over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1991. He is the all time
wins leader among Latin Americans with 245.
- Three years later, to the day, on July 28, 1994, Kenny
Rogers pitched his perfect game, winning 4 to 0, his Texas Rangers beating the
California Angels.
- David Wells, of the New York Yankees, used the
most pitches, 120, to beat the Minnesota Twins, 4 to 0 in his home field,
Yankee Stadium on May
17, 1998.
- Little over a year later, David Cone took the
longest time, 2 hours and 50 minutes (which includes a 33 minute rain delay) to
help the New York Yankees experience their third perfect game victory with zero
losses, beating the Montreal Expos, 6 to 0 on July 18, 1999.
And in this new millennial, we have had 8 perfect pitchers
so far:
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| Roy Halladay |
- Randy Johnson became the first to pitch a
perfect game in this millennial and century and also the oldest player at age
40 to pitch a perfect game victory for his Arizona Diamondbacks over the
Atlanta Braves, 2 to 0, at Turner Field on May 18, 2004.
- Mark Buehrle’s perfect game on July 23, 2009,
featured the first grand slam in a perfect game and also a ninth inning
wall-climbing catch by DeWayne Wise.
- Dallas Braden’s perfect game was pitched on
Mother’s Day 2010 which is especially poignant because he had lost his mother
to cancer ten years earlier. It was the first complete game of his short career
which concluded a year later with a career record of 26-36 in just five years
in the majors.
- 20 days later, on May 29, 2010, Roy Halladay
threw his perfect game. Known as a
groundout pitcher, Roy struck out 11 batters, his most for the year.
- Then just three days after Halladay’s perfect
game, the perfect game that will never be counted is the one thrown by Armando
Galarraga, of Detroit. Because of an
umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call, which he admitted to afterward viewing the
replay, his perfect game will never count.
On a side note, in a touching show of class and forgiveness, Galarraga
brought the lineup card of the next day’s game to Jim Joyce, shaking his hand and accepting
Joyce’s tearful apology.
- On April 21, 2012, Philip Humber of the Chicago
White Sox pitched the third perfect game in White Sox history. The final out of
Humber's perfect game came after a full-count check-swing third strike to
Brendan Ryan on a ball that catcher A.J. Pierzynski dropped. As Ryan argued
with the umpire, Pierzynski threw the ball to first base for the final out.
- Matt Cain, pitching for the San Francisco
Giants, tied Sandy Koufax’s number of strikeouts with 14 in his perfect game on
June 13, 2012. The Giants scored 10 runs, making this the largest runaway score
in a perfect game.
- On August 23, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle
Mariners pitched the third perfect game in 2012. The oddity of this perfect game was that the
Mariners were on the losing end of Humber’s perfect game earlier in the year.
Both perfect games were at Seattle’s Safeco Field.
These 24 men with a
perfect game on their résumés’ are a varied lot, ranging from five Hall of
Famers (Joss, Koufax, Young, Hunter, Bunning) to seven journeymen ballplayers who
had an overall losing record in the major leagues. In fact, Robertson never had
a winning season, never was an All-Star, and walked more men (377) than he
struck out (310).
Other than their
touch of perfection and their skill in baseball, these men have little in
common. They come from different parts of the country and even from different
countries. They have a wide range of upbringings – some are city kids and some
are country boys. Some have checkered pasts who fought the demons of alcoholism
and drugs while others are devout in their religious beliefs. Some have stayed
in baseball while others have vowed to stay away. But this one common event in
their life dramatically changed their lives forever.
Now that I have
thoroughly bored you or confounded you with these bits of baseball trivia
concerning these 24 men who, in baseball terms, have been perfect, let me try
to share some spiritual insights that I have gained from this knowledge of
baseball perfection.
Fact #1
But even more unique
than these 24 men throwing perfect games in the short history of the game of
baseball is the living of a life without any mistakes – a life of
perfection. In fact, throughout the recorded
history of mankind it has happened only once – that being the life of Jesus of
Nazareth. As recorded in the Bible, he was born into this world without sin and
lived a sinless life. That brings us to …
Fact #2
As for the rest of
us, Romans 3:23 describes us this way, “for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.”
So nobody’s perfect. We all fall short of perfection in the eyes
of God. Like these 24 men, we all have
different backgrounds and experiences. Some of us have had to battle, fight,
scrape, and overcome obstacles all our lives while others have had the
proverbial silver spoon in their mouth. As different as we all are, each of us do
things each and every day that fails to measures up to God’s standard of
perfection, so none of us can join that exclusive club of
achieving perfection, even for the span of time it takes to pitch a perfect
game.
Fact #3
Despite failing miserably at
being perfect, we all can know and rejoice in the fact that God loves us. In
fact, though all of us have sinned and none are perfect, we can find comfort
and assurance in understanding the fact that nothing can separate us from God’s
love. No matter what we’ve done or how many times we’ve turned our back on God
or even thumbed our noses in His face, Romans 8:38-39 tells us that …
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we can allow
ourselves to embrace this fact and be embraced by His love our lives would be
filled with extreme joy but, sadly, many people convince themselves that they
are unlovable – by God and by others.
Fact #4
Although we may feel
defeated and beat up, and we feel inadequate in being loved by God, we need to accept
the fact that because God still loves us, He desires and longs for us to walk
in victory every day of our lives. In fact God loves us so much, in spite of
recognizing we could not be perfect, and because He wants to be in relationship
with us so badly that He sent Jesus, who, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 describes him, knew
no sin and God made him to be sin and to die a sinner’s death so his sacrifice
can make us righteous or perfect in God’s eyes.
The writer of Hebrews
puts it this way in chapter 10, verse 10 & 14:
“we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy.”
So in God’s eyes –
WE ARE PERFECT!!!!
So when you hear
about the exclusiveness of the “Perfect Game” club in baseball, of those 24 men
who were perfect for a span of less than three hours in a game of baseball remember
the exclusiveness of the “Becoming Perfect” club and how, through Jesus Christ,
you are now included as a member of it.
And because of the
love extended to you, through no achievement of your own, I strongly encourage
you to extend that love on further to those around you.
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FOR
LEADER TRAINING: GO Georgia, a Total Leadership Training Conference, August 6 & 7, 2016 - http://gogeorgia.net
In John Bunyan’s classic
allegorical tale called Pilgrim’s Progress, he described a man “who looked no
way but downward.” He was constantly gazing to the ground using his muckrake to
desperately uncover something of worth to make his life more worthwhile. Unbeknownst to him all the while there was a
bright, priceless crown right above his head being offered by the One.
