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Several games have not qualified under this revised definition. Some weather-shortened games featured no baserunners by one team, and there have been two games in which a team reached first base only in Extra Innings . A perfect game is widely regarded as the pinnacle of pitching performance, and is one of the most difficult achievements in baseball, or indeed any sport. It is the masterpiece of a pitcher's career and, in Major League Baseball , places that pitcher in exceptionally elite company. In fact, it is so rare (and difficult) that luck, as much as skill, plays an enormous role; there have been many great pitchers who have never pitched a perfect game and a few otherwise forgettable pitchers who have. Over the past 130 years of Major League Baseball history, there have only been 17 perfect games; the two from the 19th century, at a time when the pitching distance was only 45 feet, are often not included in lists. In short, only one in about every 15,000 major league games played sees such an event. That works out to one perfect game approximately every eight years. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PERFECT GAMES 19th century Modern era Notes: #The first two perfect games occurred when pitching was underhanded (the hand could not rise above the belt), from 45 feet away from home plate, 8 balls were required for a walk, hitters could direct a high or low ball, and so on. They were fundamentally different than the rest of those listed and their place in this list is widely debated; changes in the rules since Cy Young's perfect game have been of much less significance. It should be noted that perfect games were no easier to achieve in 19th century baseball than they are today. There were only two perfect games recorded during twenty-five seasons of 19th century baseball, as opposed to seven between 1984 and 2004. #Lee Richmond's perfect game featured an unusual 9-3 putout (the right fielder threw out a runner at first). #Cy Young's perfect game was part of a hitless innings streak (24 straight and still a record) and a scoreless innings streak (45 straight, no longer a record). #Charlie Robertson's perfect game was his fourth game in the big leagues, and only his third start. #Larsen pitched the first and only post-season perfect game (also the only post-season no-hitter) in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series . #Don Larsen and David Wells attended the same high school: Point Loma High, San Diego, California. #Bunning pitched his perfect game on Father's Day . #In Koufax's perfect game, the Cubs pitcher, Bob Hendley , gave up only one hit, a bloop double in the seventh inning, and stranded the runner on second base. The Dodgers scored their only run in the fifth inning. The winning run reached first on a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, attempted a steal of third, and scored when the Cubs catcher overthrew third base. #Cone's perfect game was held on Yogi Berra Day with the original players of the 1956 World Series perfect game in attendance. Don Larsen, the pitcher of that game, threw out the first pitch to Berra, who had been his Catcher . #Cone had to wait out a 33-minute rain delay in the bottom of the third inning. #Mike Witt's perfect game came on the final day of the 1984 season. #The start of Browning's game was delayed 2 1/2 hours by rain. #The winning runs in the perfect games by Richmond, Joss, Koufax, Witt, Browning, and Martinez were all unearned. #The Boston Americans (or Pilgrims or any of several other names used by sportwriters) became the Red Sox when John I. Taylor chose the name after the Boston Nationals dropped the red stockings from their uniforms; the Huntington Avenue Grounds became the home of the Boston Braves and the Red Sox moved to Fenway Park when it was finished in 1912. The Cleveland Naps (so-called after they acquired Nap Lajoie ) finally settled on 'Indians' for a name. NEAR-MISSES OR "HIDDEN" PERFECT GAMES The official definition of a perfect game requires that a pitcher allow no baserunners over the course of an entire nine inning (or more) game, and that the pitcher pitch a complete game victory. However, there have been a few instances in which a pitcher retired every batter over nine innings (that is, 27 consecutive batters), but did not earn a perfect game, either because the game went into extra innings, or because he did not pitch a complete game victory. On June 23 , 1917 , Babe Ruth ( Boston Red Sox ) walked the first batter in a game against the Washington Senators . Ruth was so enraged with the calls made by umpire Brick Owens that he tried to strike Owens, swore at him, and was ejected. Ernie Shore came in to replace Ruth. The runner on first was caught stealing, and Shore proceeded to retire the next 26 batters. All 27 outs were made while Shore was on the mound. This was once recognized as a perfect game by Major League Baseball. It still counts as a valid combined No-hitter . On May 26 , 1959 , Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates carried a perfect game through an amazing twelve innings against the Milwaukee Braves and Lew Burdette , only to have it ruined by an error in the 13th inning, followed by an intentional walk and a home run, which became a single when Hank Aaron passed Joe Adcock on the bases. Haddix, and the Pirates, lost the game. Perhaps the most agonizing of all the 'hidden' perfect games. On June 3 , 1995 , Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos had a perfect game through nine innings against the San Diego Padres . In the 10th inning, he gave up a leadoff double to Bip Roberts , and was relieved. The Expos went on to win 1-0. Four other "perfect games" are unofficial because the games ended before nine innings were completed. Dean Chance ( Minnesota Twins , August 6 , 1967 ) and David Palmer (Expos, April 21 , 1984 ) pitched perfect games through 5 innings and won rainouts, but neither gets credit for a perfect game as they didn't go nine innings due to bad weather. Both Ed Karger of the St. Louis Cardinals (7 innings, August 11 ) and Rube Vickers of the Philadelphia Athletics (5 innings, October 5 ) pitched unofficial perfect games in 1907 , each game being ended due to darkness. Astonishingly, Vickers' gem came in the second game of a doubleheader on the last day of the season, in which he had pitched the last 12 innings of the 15-inning first game as well. Perfect games lost to the 27th batter
OTHER NOTABLE NEAR-PERFECT GAMES
JAPAN PRO BASEBALL PERFECT GAMES REFERENCES
SEE ALSO Other examples of "perfect" performances in professional sports are:
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