What Inspires Me? The Perfect Game
While I was recently reminded (by The NY Yankees Museum Curator) that “perfect pitch” is a musical term, not a baseball term, there is such a thing as a perfect pitch. This is what a perfect pitch looks like.
Don Larsen’s final “Perfect Game” pitch to Yogi Berra
The “Ball Wall” exhibit in the NY Yankees Museum shows the trajectory of Don Larsen’s final (97th) pitch to Yogi Berra on October 8, 1956, in game 5 of the 1956 World Series, against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Yankee Stadium.
The "Ball Wall" features hundreds of balls autographed by past and present Yankees. There’s even a touch-screen finder to help fans locate their favorite players autographed ball.
The NY Yankees Museum is open to the public—tours are available. And the Museum is open on home-day games to ticketholders.
Cy Young, the winningest pitcher in baseball history, pitched three no-hitters over his professional baseball career, only one of which was a perfect game, for the Boston Americans in 1904.
As I write, there are fourteen MLB games scheduled. Weather permitting, that means that at least 28 MLB pitchers will take the mound, wind up and fire off perfect pitches—lots of them.
On average according Baseball Scouter, “each Major League Baseball (MLB) team throws an average of 146 pitches” during the course of a game.
Some of those pitchers might even throw no-hitters (alone or combined), although it could take the 120, 130, maybe even 140 pitches to do it.
But just imagine, a pitcher, over the course of nine innings, firing baseballs into the strike zone so fast, so hard, with so much finesse that though one after the other batters try—MLB Batters! the heaviest of heavy hitters! —they can’t get on base. Three hitter up-Three hitters down. Nine times. 27 batters who strike out, fly out, or are tagged out. Game over! A Perfect Game.
What are the chances of that? To date, there have been only 23 perfect games in MLB history, but only ONE in World Series competition!
“The “Perfect” Perfect Game would be one in which the pitcher threw each batter out on the first pitch. The batter would have to swing on the first pitch and fly out or get tagged out running to first. 27 pitches.”
While a Perfect Game in baseball requires phenomenal pitching, pitching is not everything.
A “No-Hitter” is all about the pitching.
A Perfect Game means no hits or walks, no hit batsmen, no fielding errors that allow a player on base, no uncaught third strikes, and no interference.
. . . no “fielding errors.” Every player on the field must make every play hit to them.
A Perfect Game is what baseball is about—teamwork. It’s a team win. Now that’s inspiring!
BTW: The NY Yankee Museum is open to the public, and on game days to ticket holders. For Tour info Click.
Monument Park, located in center field, recognizes legends who have appeared at Yankee Stadium, is free and open to ticket holders on Yankees home game days. Monument Park opens when the park opens and closes 45 minutes before the scheduled start of games.
What Inspires Me? #18 Batter UP!
I watched a lot of baseball this weekend, including 5-year-old Jack’s T-Ball and Ben’s 8-10 Little League. Each time those pint-sized players stepped up to the plate—regardless of which team—I willed them a hit.
And as the spindly scowling pitchers went into their windup, I willed them strikes. Baseball is hard work. At one at bat, our pitcher, Jameson had to throw 11 pitches before the batter took a base. Eleven times that batter squared up, eleven times that pitcher wound up, eleven tense trys.
The MLB record for the most pitches at a single at-bat is 21. It was set in 2018 by LA Angels’ pitcher Jaime Barria who used up 21 pitches to finally strike-out San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Belt.
Later, my son Max, who coaches Ben’s team, mentioned during pre-game prep, how pitcher and catcher aside, players might only have a couple of chances to get hands on a ball, so they had to be ready, and they had to make it good. Which got me thinking about all of us…
In 1923, arguably Babe Ruth’s best season—the only season he was named the American League’s MVP—his batting average was .349.
Not only is that the NY Yankees highest single-season batting average it’s also the Yankee’s all-time highest batting average. (The Babe’s MLB career batting average is .342.)
In baseball, the batting average (BA), is defined as the number of hits divided by at bats. Which means that out of ten times at bat, Babe Ruth got a hit less than 3 1/2 times—which means about 7 times he was OUT!
There is only one player in the history of Major League Baseball with a BA of 1000—One Thousand! His name is John Paciorek.
Drafted by the Houston Colts, Paciorek played in the minors until 1963 when he was promoted to the Colt 45’s active roster. In his one and only MLB game—Colt 45’s vs NY Mets—right-fielder Paciorek went to the plate five times. He hit 3 singles, walked twice and scored 4 runs. That day Houston beat the NY Mets with a score of 13-4.
Paciorek aside, the highest all-time single-season Batting Average record was set by Tetelo Vargas, an outfielder on the Negro League’s NY Cubans.
In 1943, at the age of 38, in his final recorded season, Vargas posted a batting average of .471. That means he got a hit almost 1 or of every 2 at bats. But not ever player is a heavy hitter. The MLB’s average Batting Average is about .250.
Which means every time an MLB batter—the best of the best—takes the mounds chances are about 4 to 1 they’ll make an out. But they keep taking that plate. They keep swinging. That’s what inspires me!
So I’ll end with the advice Coach Max gave his players this weekend:
Square up before every pitch.
Keep your eye on the ball.
Want to hit!