The Perfect Game, Kenny Rogers to Roy Halladay

 

(PeteRose.org) Exactly three years later to the day, Kenny Rogers, left-handed pitcher for the Texas Rangers pitched Major League Baseball’s fourteenth perfect game on July 28, 1994 against the California Angels. His Rangers and the Angels are, to date, the only major league teams to record perfect games against each other and this one was ten years after Mike Witt’s perfect game against the Rangers!

 

Kenny Rogers spent seven years playing in the minor leagues before signing with the Texas Rangers in 1989 as a relief pitcher – be became their starting pitcher four years later. He had started out as a right fielder in his high school senior league but on the strength of his throwing arm and his left-handedness, his pitching skills were priceless - and needed.

 

His career lasted for twenty years and during that time, he was considered one of the best fielding pitchers in MLB – and he also possessed one of the best pick-off moves! He won four Gold Gloves with the Rangers and one with the Detroit Tigers in 2006. He was selected four times for the All-Star Team and was a World Series champion in 1996.

 

And during the 1999 National League Championship Series he pitched for the New York Mets against the Atlanta Braves. In Game Six, he entered as relief in the bottom of the eleventh and the Mets were down three games to two! Kenny Rogers stepped on the mound and walked Andrew Jones on five pitches with the bases loaded, thus ending New York’s meteoric season!

 

But on July 1, 2005, Bud Selig, Commissioner for Baseball suspended him for twenty games and fined him ,000 for assaulting a cameraman and kicking his camera equipment around. He appealed and failed but later, Bud Selig was overruled by an independent arbiter allowing Kenny to return to baseball after sitting out thirteen games.

 

In December, 2005, he signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Tigers for million. Later, he said that “right when I went in the door and met the managers and coaching staff, I knew where I was going to end up." Early in the 2007 season, Kenny had surgery on his shoulder and returned in June, pitching six scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves and allowing two hits, earning his first win of the season.

 

But his many injuries took their toll – his 2007 season was shortened and he retired from professional baseball at the end of the 2008 season. He has 219 victories to his credit and is the fourth two-hundred games winner who never won twenty games in any one season – joining just three others – Milt Pappas, Jerry Reuss and Dennis Martinez. 

 

 

David “Boomer” Wells was the fifteenth in line for a perfect game – ensuring his place in baseball immortality! Casey Stengal described him as “being afraid of sleep!” He enjoyed an active social life and Wells himself claimed to be “half-drunk” and suffering from a "raging, skull-rattling hangover" when he pitched his perfect game for the Toronto Blue Jays on May 17, 1998, annihilating the Minnesota Twins in 120 left-handed pitches.

 

In high school, he called himself a “gym-rat” spending most of his time at the Ocean Beach Recreation Centre and Robb Field. He was a starter pitcher for the first eight years of his career and his MLB debut was with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987 as a relief pitcher. Despite the fact that that he pitched well and helped the Blue Jays win a World Series, he did not land his first full-time MLB position until he was thirty years old – a late blooming Boomer!

 

Boomer signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1993 at the start of the season and within two years, he had solidified his place as a first-class pitcher. He started 1993 at 10-3 for the Detroit Tigers who were in an underwhelming last place  - and made his first All-Star team appearance when traded to the Cincinnati Reds for three other players. He completed that season with a 16-8 record and at the end, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

 

In 1996, David Wells pitched 224 innings, but finished with an 11-14 record.

 

 

He had always wanted to play for the New York Yankees, his favourite team because of his life-long interest in the great Babe Ruth. He signed with them as a free agent in 1997 and wanted to have the Babe’s number but of course, this was refused as the number was retired and was living happily in Cooperstown. He accepted Number 33 for the Yankees and appeared on the pitcher’s mound wearing a genuine Babe Ruth hat, which he had purchased for ,000!

 

Boomer was forced to remove his Babe hat by Manager Torres after the first inning because it was not consistent with uniform standards. He then blew a 3-0 lead, allowing the Cleveland Indians to win 12-8. But in 1997, he posted a 16-10 mark and in 1998, roared back, pitching perfectly in the Yankees’ 1998 season which was a record-setter. He finished fifth in the League in ERA (3.49) and came third in the voting for the Cy Young Award with an 18-4 record.

 

This record-setting pitcher almost pitched a second perfect game on September 1, 1998 which would have been an unprecedented achievement for an individual pitcher, especially in the same season. He was pitching against the Oakland Athletics and allowed no walks and only two hits, the first of which came with two outs in the seventh inning when the batter fought a 0-2 count and singled.

 

Following the 1998 season, Boomer Wells returned to the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a trade for three other players, including Roger Clemens. He posted records of 17-10 and 20-8 over the next two seasons and was traded, along with pitcher Matt DeWitt to the Chicago White Sox. The deal was very controversial and did not benefit the White Sox as Wells suffered from back problems throughout 2001 and only pitched one hundred innings. Finally, at the end of the season, he returned to the New York Yankees, an arrangement which was already problematic as he had entered into an oral agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His back problems had slowed down his fastball but his control and curveball were as good as ever and in 2002, he posted an incredible record of 19-7.

 

In 2003, he caused a great deal of discomfort for the Yankees management. Just before the season opened, he published his book, “Perfect I’m Not; Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball!” Boomer found himself being fined 0,000 by the team for the many uncomplimentary comments which appeared throughout the book – one of them being the story of his pitching his perfect game while seriously hung-over. He also stated that he had strengthened his pitching arm by hurling rocks at homeless people and that his minor league team, the Kinston Blue Jays, had segregated stands during 1983 which was untrue according to plentiful evidence. Boomer Wells claims that he was misquoted in the book! Fortunately, these problems did not manifest themselves on the field and he posted a 15-7 record, helping the New York Yankees win another pennant.

 

Wells earned his 200^th career win on the last day of the regular season. Manager Torre had allowed Roger Clemens to manage the team that day and he pulled Wells from the game during the eighth inning following his record-setting win!

 

The New York Yankees were in contention for the World Series in 2003 and Boomer Wells was criticized by the fans for not being able to pitch during Game Five – he started, but left the mound during the first inning because of back problems. Manager Torre was forced to use the bullpen to complete the fame and ended up losing it and the Series to the Florida Marlins in six games.

 

In 2007, Boomer Wells was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He continued to play baseball and at the age of 44, had his first multi-hit game of his entire career. In 2008, he participated in the 62^nd Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium where he stated that although he was not going to retire officially, he figured that he was probably done.

 

In 2009, Wells began to broadcast for MLB on TBS, covering regular and post-season baseball games and continues to do so today.

 

 

On July 18, 1999, David Cone of the New York Yankees pitched the sixteenth perfect game! It was against the Montreal Expos and it all happened on “Yogi Berra Day” in Yankee Stadium! Berra had been involved in a long-term dispute with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner but he agreed to come to the Stadium and catch the ceremonial first pitch from his fellow “perfect gamer” the great Don Larsen who was caught smiling in the press box after the final out was posted!

 

David Cone’s professional baseball career lasted for sixteen years, during which he pitched for five different teams; two stints with three of them – the Kansas City Royals, the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays. He started out at the age of sixteen with an invitation from the Kansas City Royals for a tryout at Royals Stadium and upon graduation, was drafted by them in 1981. His first Major League Baseball game was in June, 1986 as a relief pitcher. Traded to the New York Mets at the beginning of the 1987 season, he went 5-6  with a 3.71 ERA and sixty-eight strikeouts in 21 appearances.

 

He was added to the starting rotation in May and his very first start was a complete game shutout over the Atlanta Braves. He went 9-2  with a 2.52 ERA during the first half of the season which earned him his first All-Star position. He also started as a newspaper commentator on the playoffs for the New York Daily News but created a furore following the Mets’ 3-2 win in Game One.

 

He wrote that the Dodgers’ Game One starter, Orel Hershiser “was lucky for eight innings” and ripping closer Jay Howell. He added “we saw Howell throwing curveball after curveball and we were thinking ‘this is the Dodgers’ idea of a stopper? Our idea would be Randy Myers, a guy who can blow you away with his hat! Seeing Howell and his curveball reminded us of a high school pitcher.”

 

He gave the Dodgers plenty of bulletin board material and they jumped on him for five runs in two innings in the Second Game of the playoffs, tying the Series at one game each. Cone returned with a complete game victory in Game Six but the Series MVP and Cy Young 1988 winner Orel Hershiser hurtled back in Game Seven with the complete game shutout, leading the Dodgers to the 1988 World Series against the Oakland Athletics.

 

 

David Cone played for five seasons with the New York Mets, leading the National League in strikeouts in 1990 and in 1991. On October 6, 1991 he tied a National League record striking out nineteen Philadelphia Phillies batters in a 7-0, three-hit shutout – the second highest total ever recorded in a nine-innings game. In 1992, he represented the Mets at the All-Star game, going 9-4 with a 2.52 ERA at the break. Cone was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in August after the non-waiver trading deadline.

 

The Blue Jays beat the Oakland A’s in the American League Championship Series in 1992 as well as the Atlanta Braves in the World Series which earned David Cone his first World Series ring. The Jays became the first Canadian team to win the World Series.

 

Cone returned to the Kansas City Royals as a free agent for the 1993 season and while it wasn’t a record setter, the strike-shortened 1994 season, it was far better as he went 17-4 with a 2.04 ERA and won the American League Cy Young Award. He also represented the Players Association during negotiations with Major League Baseball concerning the issues which sparked the 1994 baseball strike.

 

Following his perfect game in 1998, David Cone seemed to lose his effectiveness. He had been diagnosed with an aneurysm in his arm a couple of years earlier and attempted a return to baseball, pitching again for the New York Mets but announced his retirement in May. He became a commentator for the YES Network during its first season and tried again to return to professional baseball to no avail; George Steinbrenner did not want him around!

 

He rejoined the YES Network in 2008 and retired in 2010.

 

 

Randy Johnson employed every inch of his almost seven-foot frame to pitch the seventeenth perfect game in Major League Baseball history. At Turner Field on May 18, 2004, while pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was the oldest pitcher ever to achieve this distinction; he had had thirteen strikeouts, resulting in a 2-0 defeat for the Atlanta Braves and his perfect game tagged him as the fifth pitcher in major league history to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues. And later that same year, he became the fourth player to reach 4,000 strikeouts during his professional baseball career.

 

Randy Johnson had a menacing aspect while on the mound – one of the most feared pitchers in baseball! His intense energy and appearance, his wild mullet hairstyle and mustache in addition to his pitches intimidated most batters who faced him! He had one of the most forceful fastballs

 ever, approaching and often exceeding one hundred miles per hour when at his prime – and his slider was fearsome! He was also left-handed and his uncontrolled pitching was terrifying!

 

His first appearance in the major leagues was with the Montreal Expos, with whom he signed in 1988. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners the following year and proceeded to lead the American League in walks from 1990 through 1992 – and in hit batsmen in 1992 and 1993! But the talent was there – it just needed direction! In 1990, Randy Johnson became the first lefty to strike out Wade Boggs three times in a single game and he also pitched a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers.

 

A training session with Nolan Ryan in late 1992 helped Randy develop some control in his pitching! The small changes made in his delivery resulted in his being chosen TEN times for the All-Star team and he was voted TSN’s Pitcher of the year in the American League in 1995. During the 1993 All-Star game in Baltimore, Randy Johnson fired a fastball over the head of the Phillies’ first baseman, John Kruk! It became a “moment in sport” and is replayed on baseball highlights shows to this day. He did the same to Larry Walker in 1997!

 

Randy Johnson won the American League’s Cy Young Award in 1995 with an 18-2 record, 294 strikeouts and 2.48 ERA. The American League posted his .900 winning percentage as the second highest in AL history, since John Allen went 15-1 in 1937 for the Cleveland Indians; almost sixty years! Randy also came second in the Cy Young Award voting for 1993 and 1997 and he was third in 1994! He was the first Seattle Mariners’ pitcher to earn this award and the only Mariner until Felix Hernandez won it in 2010, fifteen years later!

 

 

He was sidelined for most of the 1996 baseball season with a back injury but came roaring back in 1997, posting a 20-4 record, 291 strikeouts and his best ERA ever – 2.28! And between May 1994 and October, 1997, Randy went 53-9 which included a 16-0 streak which was just one short of the American League record. And in 1997, he also had two 19 strikeout starts, one in June and the other in August.

 

But Randy Johnson wasn’t done yet! In June, he fired one of his terrifying 97mph fastball missiles to Mark McGwire who sent it spinning into the upper deck of the Kingdome (later measured at almost 540 feet) for a spectacular homer – the images of it bouncing off the left field wall, high above the seats with Randy Johnson watching its ascent and yelling “Wow!” was played over and over on the sports highlights shows – Randy ended up with nineteen strikeouts that day, but lost the game 4 to 1!

 

Randy Johnson’s contract with the Mariners was up at the end of the 1998 season and he was traded to the Houston Astros. He pitched for only two months, helping the Astros win their second straight National League Central Division title and finished seventh in the National League Cy Young voting for the season. The following season, he signed a four-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks and won the Cy Young Award for each of those years.

 

In July, 2000, the Diamondbacks acquired Curt Schilling, a right-handed pitcher from the Philadelphia Phillies. They took the team to their first World Series and beat the New York Yankees the following season. They shared the World Series MVP Award and Sports Illustrated named them both “Sportsmen of the Year.” Both pitchers finished first (Randy) and second (Schilling) in that year’s Cy Young vote.

 

Randy Johnson continued to set records! On August 23, 2001, he struck out three batters in nine pitches in the sixth inning of a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the thirtieth pitcher in Major League Baseball history to pitch an immaculate inning! During the following season, he won the pitching Triple Crown, leading the National League in wins, ERA and strikeouts and also earned his fourth Cy Young Award. That season was also his fourth consecutive 300-strikeout season and became the only pitcher to ever post a 24-5 record!

 

2003 was a year on the disabled list for Randy Johnson. But he achieved yet another goal - his first and only career home run.

 

And on May 18, 2004, he pitched his perfect game at the age of forty! In that same year, he also became the fourth MLB career pitcher to reach four thousand strikeouts!

 

He was traded to the New York Yankees in January, 2005 but he was not playing well. At the end of the 2006 season, it was discovered that he had a herniated disc and in January, 2007 he returned to the Diamondbacks at his own request. In July, he underwent surgery on his back and returned to play in April, 2008 against the San Francisco Giants. He achieved his 4,700^th career strike in July and in December, signed a one-year contract with the Giants.

 

In 2009, Randy Johnson reached his 300 wins goal, becoming the twenty-fourth pitcher and just the seventh lefty to reach that milestone.  But in July, he injured his pitching shoulder and in January, 2010 he announced his retirement from professional baseball.

 

Randy Johnson defeated every major league baseball team during his twenty-two year career. He will be eligible for Hall of Fame induction in 2015.

 

 

Mark Buehle of the Chicago White Sox was the next perfect game hero – he is the eighteenth MLB pitcher to pitch a perfect game and it all happened on July 23, 2008, against the Tampa Bay Rays at U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago in front of just over twenty-eight thousand fans. Buehle’s perfect game was also the 263^rd no-hitter in MLB history and the second perfect game in White Sox history. The first White Sox perfect game had been pitched by Charlie Robertson against the Detroit Tigers on April 22, 1930 -  eighty-seven years earlier!

 

Left-handed Mark Buehle signed up with the Chicago White Sox and made his MLB debut on July 16, 2000 as a relief pitcher. In 2001, he went 16-9 with a 3-29 ERA and pitched almost twenty-five consecutive scoreless innings and would have equaled Tommy John’s twenty-five scoreless innings which he pitched in 1967. Buehle also pitched three complete games in his first full season.

 

In 2002, Fox Sports News honoured him as the White Sox Player of the Year and was chosen for the Major League All-Star team which played in Japan that year. And in 2003, he ranked second among the American League starters, pitching thirty-five starts – his personal career high!

 

In the 2005 season, Mark Buehle opened with a 10-3 record, a 2.58 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP and was chosen for the American League All-Star team. He was also named the MLB all-star starting pitcher (following Roy Halliday’s broken leg) and pitched two innings, striking out three batters, allowing no runs and earned a win. His consecutive forty-nine starts streak ended in August after he hit the Baltimore Orioles outfielder.

 

Mark Buehle was somewhat of a joker and loved to entertain the fans on rain days by running and sliding around in the big puddles on the tarp. But early in 2006, Kenny Williams, the team’s general manager ordered him to stop, disappointing the fans! He completed his 2006 season 12-13 with a 4.99 ERA, which was his first losing year in seven major league seasons. And in October, the White Sox exercised their .5 million option for his 2007 season.

 

Then, in 2007, Mark Buehle pitched a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers at U.S. Cellular Field; the first no-hitter in the history of the stadium. He almost pitched a perfect game that evening but walked Sammy Sosa in the fifth inning. He got him at first base for an out but had registered the minimum number of twenty-seven batters. He struck out eight Texas Rangers with an awesome 106 pitches, resulting in the American League avoiding five years without a no-hitter!

 

He was chosen to represent Chicago at the 2009 All-Star game; he pitched a perfect third inning and just eighteen days later, pitched his perfect game – on July 23. And five days later, he retired the first seventeen batters before allowing a baserunner in the sixth – setting the Major League Baseball record at forty-five consecutive outs. To honour Mark Buehle, Illinois Governor declared July 30, 2009 to be “Mark Buehle Day” and in September, 2009, his Perfect Game of July 23, 2009 was honoured by receiving the “Sporting News Performance of the Decade Award.”

 

Mark Buehle’s impressive lists of records made and awards won include four All-Star selections, two Gold Gloves, two Fielding Bible Awards to name just a few. He still plays for the Chicago White Sox and has plenty of time at age 32 to pitch another perfect game for the Sox!

 

 

Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics pitched his perfect game on Mothers’ Day – May 9, 2010. He retired all twenty-seven batters of the Tampa Bay Rays and Braden’s grandmother, who had raised him was there to see it all happen. Landon Powell, Braden’s battery-mate had joined the Athletics just eighteen days earlier, from the minor leagues. Following the game, Braden said of his catcher, “Landon and I – we’re seamless. We’ve come up together. He’s rock-solid back there and he knows my game inside and out!”

 

Lefty Dallas Braden pitched the nineteenth perfect game in baseball history at the age of twenty-six. He is the youngest pitcher to throw a perfect game since Mike Witt did it in 1984! And it was the first Oakland Athletics’ perfect game since the immortal Catfish Hunter pitched his against the Minnesota Twins on May 8, 1968, forty-two years earlier!

 

Controversy surrounded Dallas Braden before his perfect game, however! During a game on April 22, 2010 between the Athletics and the New York Yankees, Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman walked across the pitcher’s mound on his way to first base after a foul ball in the sixth inning. Braden told him to get off the mound, that it was pitcher’s territory and that no opposing player should even consider crossing it.

Crossing the pitcher’s mound is a direct violation of one of baseball’s lesser unwritten rules. And Dallas Braden, a pitcher with just a handful of wins in his career responded to superstar Rodriguez by ordering him off the mound! Braden said later, “It’s territorial! I don’t care if I’m Cy Young or the twenty-fifth man on the roster; if I’ve got the ball in my hand and I’m on the mound, that’s my mound, not yours!”

Rodriguez said “I thought he was talking to someone else!” There is no doubt that baseball is a game of hierarchy, from locker assignments to seating charts on team transportation. Some feel that Braden overstepped the mark with his criticism of Rodriguez, while others are not surprised as Alex Rodriguez seems to be in contention with somebody on a fairly consistent basis.

Dallas Braden is only twenty-seven years old – again, like Mark Buehle, he has an entire career ahead of him to pitch another perfect game and more power to him!

 

Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies waited just twenty days following Dallas Braden before pitching his own perfect game on May 29, 2010 against the Florida Marlins in Miami. He retired all twenty-seven batters and struck out eleven of them. This was the first time in baseball’s modern era that two pitchers; Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay had each pitched a perfect game in the same month and also the first time that more than one perfect game had been thrown in the same season.

And on August 24, 2010 in celebration, Roy Halladay presented about sixty Baume & Mercier watches to everybody in the clubhouse. Each watch came in a brown presentation case which bore an inscription, “We did it together! Thanks, Roy Halladay.” Each watch was also engraved on the back with the date of the game, the line score and of course, the name of the recipient.

A gentleman! May he pitch another perfect game and be the first ever, to pitch two of them!