Friday, July 24, 2009

Perfection

About two years ago, somewhere in the middle of reading most of my baseball collection, I stumbled upon a beautiful book titled "27 Men Out." Each chapter was designated to a perfect game in MLB history as they broke down those special games in great detail. There were only 15 chapters—the book does not count the two thrown in the 1800s. Fifteen chapters for 15 perfect games in more than 100 years of baseball.

Ever since reading that book, no-hitters never really excited me that much. Of course it's still an unbelievable feat and rare accomplishment to fire a no-hitter, but I've been waiting for that next perfect game since Randy Johnson's in 2004. It's probably the rarest single-game occurrence that can happen in baseball.

Yesterday afternoon on the South Side of Chicago, Mark Buehrle wrote his own chapter of perfection with the 16th perfect game in baseball history. He mowed down the Tampa Bay Rays by retiring all 27 batters. No hits, no walks, no errors, nothing except history and the record book.

Buehrle didn't come out of nowhere either. He's already thrown a no-hitter prior to his perfect game, he owns a World Series ring and he's been one of the most consistent, steady pitchers in the past decade. This just adds to his resume of a great Major League career.

I don't think the average fan understands how greater a perfect game is from a no-hitter. In a perfect game, no one from the opposition reaches a base as everyone is retired in order. Consider this—there's been 263 no-hitters in MLB history, which is more than two a season. Compare that to 16 perfect games, which comes out to about 15 percent chance to see a perfect game a season. It just doesn't happen. That's why Buehrle's game Thursday was so special and easily goes down as the highlight of 2009.

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