Who has not heard of Sandy Koufax? Even non-baseball fans know his name – surprising because his career was relatively short; just twelve years! But during those twelve years he packed more awards, achievements and unforgettable baseball games than almost any other baseball legend – and he did it while playing for just one team – the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

He won three Cy Young Awards and during those same three years, he won the pitchers’ Triple Crown by leading the National League in wins, strikeouts and ERA’s. And he was the first major leaguer to throw four no hitters – which included the eighth perfect game in baseball history.

 

Koufax’s perfect game was the first one ever which was pitched at night – September 9, 1965 against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium. He threw one hundred and thirteen pitches during his perfect game – seventy-nine of which were strikes! It was also his fourth no-hitter and during it, he struck out fourteen opposing batters; the most ever recorded in a perfect game. And thirty years later, it was selected by the Society for American Baseball Research as the greatest baseball game ever pitched.

 

The Chicago Cubs outfielder Al Spangler reminded his teammates that Koufax "telegraphed" his pitches and a miniscule “hitch" in his windup informed batters whether the curveball or fastball was coming! Cubs player Billy Williams grumbled later that "we knew what was coming, and we still couldn't hit it!”

For most of his first six seasons, left-handed Sandy Koufax, a towering 6’ 2” warmed the bench. Then, during spring training in 1961 he began to blossom. Catcher Norm Sherry told him he should concentrate on throwing strikes rather than trying to break the sound barrier and to be more varied and selective with his pitches. Koufax lacked control but following this advice, he began to show consistent signs of the greatness to come by setting a National League record of 269 strikeouts. And during his final five seasons, he dictated – no, dominated the game of baseball and how it was to be played. In 1963 he earned MVP with a 25-5 record and in that year’s World Series he beat Whitey Ford twice in five days as the Dodgers marmalized the Yankees. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, "I can see how he won twenty-five games! What I don’t see is how he lost five!"

 

Why was his brilliant career so short? In July, 1962, Koufax was having problems with his left index finger which affected his pitching hand. He found himself sidelined by his doctor for the rest of the season and the following year, he injured his elbow! Thus began his battle with arthritis. But in 1965, he had recovered and went 26-8 with a 2.04 ERA to win his second Cy Young Award.

 

The first game of the World Series fell on The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the holiest day of the year for Jews. Devout Sandy Koufax declined to play and went to the synagogue instead. But in Games Five and Seven, he annihilated the Minnesota Twins and the Dodgers romped away with the Series.

 

Sandy Koufax had just one more season in him. At the end of it, he retired upon the advice of his doctors who told him that he risked losing the use of his arthritic left arm if he continued to pitch baseball. In November, 1966 he retired. "I don't regret for one minute the twelve years I've spent in baseball," he said, "but I could regret one season too many."
With his lifetime record of 165-87, 2.76 ERA and 2,396 strikeouts in 2,324 1/3 innings, Sandy Koufax became the youngest player voted into MLB’s Baseball Hall of Fame at the age of just thirty-six.

 

Catfish Hunter. Why was he called “Catfish, when his real name was James?” No real reason other than Charlie Finlay, the owner of the Kansas City Athletics thought his new pitcher needed a nickname with some colour – and the name stuck! Catfish loved a joke and when Finlay offered 0 to the first player who could grow a mustache, Catfish was all over that and collected the 0 bonus!

 

He was the youngest of eight children and excelled in every sport possible while growing up in North Carolina. He was spotted by a scout in his senior high school year and his MLB pitching debut was with the Kansas City Athletics in 1965, against the Boston Red Sox. The following year, he was named to the American League All-Star team - and again in 1967. In 1968, the team moved to Oakland (Oakland Athletics) and Catfish Hunter earned immortality by pitching the ninth perfect game in baseball history on May 8, 1968 against the Minnesota Twins.

 

Catfish Hunter lived up to the investment made in him by continuing to win games. In 1974, he was names “Pitcher of the Year” by Sporting News and earned the Cy Young Award. But in 1975, he left the Oakland Athletics following a contract dispute with the owners and signed with the New York Yankees, becoming the highest paid pitcher in baseball.

 

After a rocky start (0-3 in his first four games), Catfish found his “groove” and led the league in innings pitched, complete games and wins (twenty-three) for the second year in a row! He was named to his seventh All-Star team. He also became the last American League pitcher to win twenty games in a season for five consecutive seasons (1971 – 1975).

 

In 1976, Catfish Hunter won seventeen games and led the Yankees in innings pitched and complete games, earning himself yet another place in the All-Star Team. His Yankees won three straight pennants – 1976, 1977 and 1978. George Steinbrenner said, "Catfish Hunter was the cornerstone of the Yankees' success over the last quarter century. We were not winning before Catfish arrived. He exemplified class and dignity and he taught us how to win."

But his diabetes and severe arm strain were having their effects on Catfish and he retired from baseball in 1979. Catfish Hunter was not renowned for his fast pitches – he was celebrated for his devastating accuracy and control. He is one of just three pitchers – the others are Cy Young and Christy Mathewson – to win 200 games by the time they reached 31 years of age. In 1987, Catfish was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and could choose which team’s insignia would be memorialized on his plaque. But Catfish Hunter has no insignia on his plaque because before and after his induction, he spoke highly of his experiences with both the Athletics and Yankees and his appreciation for both team owners, Charlie Finlay and George Steinbrenner. He chose not to choose either team, hence, no insignia.

 

Catfish Hunter died in 1999 following a fall at his home. He had previously been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and his home city’s (Hertford) annual softball event has been held in his memory with all proceeds going to ALS research. Catfish Hunter was just 53 at the time of his death.
 

The tenth official perfect game in baseball history was pitched by Lenny Barker of the Cleveland Indians. It was a cold damp evening in Cleveland on May 15, 1981 and fewer than 8,000 spectators were on hand to witness the Toronto Blue Jays facing Large Lenny’s consistent pitching – he never reached ball three against any Blue Jays hitter! The Big Donkey, as he was called by his manager, threw a brutal slider and a blazing fastball that night and it became clear that Lenny’s pitching angels were alive and well and throwing their weight around for him! Once he got going, the Blue Jays were a done deal! Lenny threw one hundred and three pitches, which included eighty-four strikes and nineteen balls in his perfect game and this game was also the last no-hitter thrown by the Cleveland Indians - it is remembered as a high point in Cleveland’s sports history.

 

Lenny Barker is a former right-handed starter pitcher and his career began in 1976 when he made his MLB debut with the Texas Rangers. He stayed with the team for two years before joining the Cleveland Indians for the 1979 season. He pitched his perfect game in 1981 and that year, was also selected for MLB’s All-Star team which was held in Cleveland on August 9. That game was the first one played after a long players’ strike and it also gave Large Lenny the opportunity to pitch two scoreless innings in front of over 72,000 screaming fans in his home stadium. His pitching was not always under total control – he once threw a fastball which landed in the press box, fifty feet above home plate!

 

In 1983, he joined the Atlanta Braves, playing with them for two years and then finished his baseball career with the Milwaukee Brewers retiring in 1987. He coaches baseball and presently is the pitching coach for Division II, Notre Dame College in South Euclid.

 

 

Mike Witt of the California Angels pitched the eleventh perfect game in baseball history on September 30, 1984 against the Texas Rangers. As of that date, it was the only perfect game ever thrown on the final day of the MLB season. Towering over his teammates at six feet seven inches, he threw a terrific fastball and a demonic curveball.

 

Mike Witt started his baseball career in 1981 as a youngster aged just twenty and made his debut in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the California Angels, with whom he played until 1990. But 1984 was his season and he topped it off with his perfect game. During the year, he went 15-11 for his team and on July 23, he struck out sixteen Seattle Mariners during a complete game five-hitter! But he was just leading up to his opportunity for immortality when during his perfect game, he struck out ten batters. He made baseball history with just 94 pitches!

 

He roared along, at the peak of his form by leading his team from 1984 to 1987 in wins, strikeouts, innings pitched and complete games! But his year to howl was 1986, when he won MVP and was selected for the All-Star team – an achievement which he repeated in 1987.

 

But something happened to Mike Witt in the middle of the 1987 season – his awesome pitching ability suddenly left him – his strikeout numbers dropped significantly and for the remainder of his career, he never again dominated the mound! (Unable to find out why – no reports of injuries or illness). He was traded to the New York Yankees in May, 1990 and won only five games in the three years before his retirement from baseball.

 

 

Tom Browning from Wyoming is probably best known for pitching the twelfth perfect game in MLB history and he joins the other immortals who have achieved this top spot. He played college baseball at Lemoyne College in Syracuse between 1879 and 1981 and, at the age of twenty-two, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1982 draft out of Tennessee Wesleyan College, in Athens, Tennessee. During that year, he led the Pioneer League in strikeouts and innings pitched. During the Fall Instruction League, he added a screwball pitch to his list of talents and went 8-1 with 101 strikeouts in 1983. He started his 1984 season with Class AAA Wichita and on July 31 he threw a seven-innings no hitter against Iowa and was called to play for the Cincinnati Reds, managed by the great Pete Rose. He finished the season with 1-0, with a 1.54 ERA and secured his place on the team for the following season.

 

Tom Browning was extremely superstitious and refused to shave between starts – generally he was photographed with a several-days stubble on his face! He also had his favourite red lucky underwear which he always wore when pitching baseball!

 

Tom Browning became the first rookie to win twenty games since 1954 – finishing the season with eleven consecutive wins which was the longest winning streak by a Reds pitcher for thirty years. “Sporting News” named him National League Rookie of the Year. He continued to post double-digit win totals for seven seasons and maintained his place among the League leaders in starts, innings pitched and shutouts. 1988 was his season to remember when he went 18-5 with a 3.41 ERA and together with Danny Jackson, a twenty-three game winner, they were the best pitching team for that year.

 

And in that same year, Tom Browning pitched his perfect game! At Riverfront Stadium, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he threw one hundred pitches, seventy-two of them for strikes and did not three-ball a single batter! Tom Browning is the only Cincinnati Red ever to pitch a perfect game and in that same year, he pitched another no-hitter!

 

The following season, Tom Browning almost became the second pitcher ever to throw two perfect games! On July 4, he took his Reds into the ninth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium but a lead-off single by Dickie Thon stopped that unbelievable and historic achievement from taking place. Marge Schott, owner of the Reds added a clause to Tom’s contract which stated that if he pitched another perfect game in 1989, his wife would receive a bonus of 0,000! However, the National League put paid to that great idea!

 

For the first time in his career, Tom Browning’s Reds went to post-season in 1990. He won fifteen games that season and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game Two of the National League Championship Series. Later, the Reds would face the popular Oakland A’s in the World Series but thanks to Browning’s amazing performance in Game Three, the Reds swept the A’s to become world champions! He said later that “the 1990 season was, without a doubt, the most enjoyable season of baseball I has ever been a part of!”

 

Towards the end of Game Two in the World Series, Tom’s wife entered the hospital and he left the stadium to be with her while she gave birth. But the game entered an extra innings! The announcers issued a request on the radio and TV asking Tom to return to the ballpark in case he was called upon to pitch. Tom chose to stay with his wife and the  Reds won the game in the tenth inning.

 

He had overcome injuries since 1991 and earned himself a well-deserved place on the All-Star Team following a 10-4 start to the season. Always a prankster, he snuck out of Wrigley Field on July 7, 1993 during a Cubs-Reds game and posed, in full uniform on one of the nearby rooftops. That particular stunt cost him a 0 fine, imposed by Reds manager Davey Johnson! But then, disaster! In 1994 during a start on May 9 in San Diego, he broke his pitching arm during a hurl to Archi Cianfrocco – you could hear the “click” as his shoulder separated. This particular injury did him in for the season, but always the professional, he attempted a “come-back” with the Kansas City Royals the following season but after two games, he chose to skip the season and allow his arm to heal.

 

In 1996, he attended camp with the Royals but to no avail and he decided to retire from major league baseball before the season started. Tom Browning was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 and that same year, joined the Reds at spring training as a special instructor. In 2007, he was named as pitching coach for the Reds Rookie Advanced Level Farm Club.

 

 

Dennis Martinez of Nicaragua, aka “El Presidente” was next! He was the first Nicaraguan baseball player to play in any position in Major League Baseball. He pitched for the Baltimore Orioles for ten years; 1976 – 1986 and was a World Series champion in 1983. His career was long – twenty-three years and he is one of the top Latin-American pitchers of all time.

 

In 1986, he signed on with the Montreal Expos. Dennis Martinez is the only Latin-American to pitch a perfect game in baseball history – and he pitched it as an Expos team member on July 28, 1991, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

Dave Van Horne was calling the play-by-play and when centre fielder Marquis Grissom caught pinch-hitter Chris Gwynn’s flyball to deep centre field at Dodger Stadium, he yelled “El Presidente – El Perfecto!” Dennis Martinez had completed the only perfect game in Expos history, And he had retired each of the twenty-seven batters he had faced and in so doing, he annihilated the Dodgers, 2-0!

 

He played for the Expos for seven full seasons and scored winning records in six of them. He was selected four times for the All-Star team and on September 28, 1993, he won his one-hundredth game for the Montreal team – only nine other MLB pitchers have ever achieved that distinction. In 1994, Martinez signed with the Cleveland Indians and on September 28, 1995, he was the last man ever to pitch to the late Kirby Puckett in the final game of his career. The pitch broke Puckett’s jaw. The following year, he pitched for the Seattle Mariners for one season and moved to the Atlanta Braves, retiring from professional baseball in 1998.

 

He worked as a spring training instructor for the Baltimore Orioles and presently is the pitching coach for the Springfield Cardinals. His organization, the Dennis Martinez Foundation works to help poor children worldwide and he is a well-known public speaker. However, when asked about his perfect game way back in 1991, he agrees that it was indeed a rare achievement. But not as important to him as winning his lifelong battle with alcoholism!

 

 

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.