Perfection

I'm still not sure what a perfect game means. Sure, sure, no hits, no walks, but is that all the pitcher's doing?

In last night's Sox/Rays game, Larry Wise caught a would-be homer in the ninth inning to save Mark Buehrle's perfect game. As with any pitcher's "win," a perfect game depends a lot on the other eight men on the field. So did Buehrle pitch a perfect game or did the White Sox win a perfect game?

When you get down to it, the only way a pitcher could possibly claim a perfect game for himself would be to throw 27 strikeouts, making the rest of the team not players but bystanders. (Take the 27 strikeouts at face value for argument's sake; it is possible for a pitcher to strike out 4 guys in an inning if the hitter swings, the catcher misses the ball, and the hitter beats the throw to first. The hitter still "struck out," and the pitcher has to face the next guy. But the perfect game would be shot, too).

Roger Clemens came close twice: he struck out 20 batters apiece in two separate games. Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson both struck out 20 guys in a single game. The only pitcher to ever strike out 27 batters in a single game was a guy named Ron Necciai. He played minor league ball back in the '50s. It wasn't a perfect game, but a no-hitter, and Necciai needed to strike out four men in the ninth because of a catcher's passed ball.

So has there ever really been a "perfect game" by a pitcher? Depends how you look at perfection.

You can argue it till the cows come home. A perfect game is either a fantastic feat done by a very good pitcher, or a statistical anomoly (there's only been 18 perfect games in the history of baseball) compliments of a good - and lucky - team.