It happened last week while I was in New Hampshire. White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle took the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays for a total of 32 minutes and pitched a perfect game. It was the first perfect game since Randy Johnson pitched one for the Diamondbacks in 2004.
image courtesy of: http://www.historyofthings.com/history-of-baseball
A perfect game is both a no hitter and a shut out. In a perfect game, a pitcher faces 27 hitters and retires them all in order.* In a perfect game, no one from the opposing team reaches the bases on hits, on walks, on errors, as the result of catcher’s interference, or after being hit by a pitch.
A perfect game doesn’t happen often. In fact, there have been only 18 perfect games in the history of baseball. Eighteen. In a sport where 30 different teams each play 162 games during the regular season every year, that makes a perfect game something worth noticing.
A lot of people noticed. People also noticed that DeWayne Wise, center fielder for the White Sox, preserved Buehrle’s perfect game with an incredible catch at the wall in the ninth.
Today Mark Buehrle will take the mound again for the White Sox. The chances of his pitching another perfect game are pretty slim. I don’t think that matters. For me, nearly every baseball game is perfect.
*thanks T
knitting a life 