Sorts of Sports

Get off My Mound!

Dallas Braden threw the 16th perfect game on Sunday, a tremendous accomplishment by an unlikely pitcher against an unlikely candidate of a team. Maybe it was all of that foul territory that enabled Braden to pitch the perfect game. Braden's career record of 18-23, needless to say, the worst record of any pitcher who threw a perfect game, or is it?

Charlie Robertson ended up with a career record of 49-80 but at the time when he threw the perfect game in just his 5th career game! At that point he was just 2-0 but imagine if a player like Stephen Strasburg threw a perfect game in his first month in the big leagues? Charlie Robertson was pitching for the White Sox when he threw the perfect game against the Tigers and Ty Cobb. After the game the Tigers sent baseballs up to American League President in order to check the balls for irregularities. Also, more than twice as many people were in attendance for that game in 1922 than there were on Sunday for Dallas Braden's game. (25,000 to 12,288).

Don Larsen was the next pitcher, 34 years later, to throw a perfect game. It came in the World Series and Don Larsen had a record of 30-40 at the time, thus making his winning percentage at the time less than that of Dallas Braden. The Larsen game has been documented as one of the greatest pitching games in World Series history.

Dallas Braden's perfect game will go down in history with the likes of Len Barker and Jim Bunning or Addie Joss, names that are forgotten on the list of perfect games thrown, but when less than 20 people in the history of baseball have done what Braden just did, it's impressive none the less.