The Perfect Game

The 18th perfect game in major league baseball history occurred yesterday when White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle shutdown Tampa Bay in Chicago.

Okay, you old timers out there, can any of you recall some of the other perfect gems thrown by the superstars of the past? The first one that was documented was back in 1880... and it wasn't by Wyatt Earp. The pitcher was John Lee Richmond. The first one in the 1900s was hurled by the great Cy Young, in 1904, and the third occurred in 1908 by Addie Jones. Now, I'm pretty sure none of my readers were around for those three perfectos.

But for me, the one I remember was Don Larsen's perfect game in the fifth game of the 1956 World Series when the New York Yankee pitcher mowed down my favorite team of all time, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0. We didn't have one of those fancy TV's back then...you know the one that produced an on the screen colored peacock...ours was just the black and white variety, but it did the trick.

Oh, what I game it was! Larsen, to my dismay, handcuffed the likes of Junior Gilliam, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Sandy Amoros, Carl Furillo and Roy Campanella. The fella who took the loss was pitching great, Sal Maglie. On the otherside, could it have been any better than this? A starting Yankee lineup of Hank Bauer,Joe Collins, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Enos Slaughter, Billy Martin, Gil McDougald and Andy Carey. Mantle and Bauer drove in the only runs of the game.

I was 11 years old...my eyes were glued to the black and white screen, but for a young baseball-crazed kid, it seemed like living color.