So I Hear Mark Buehrle Had A Nice Little Outing
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
For as few people who talked about Jonathan Sanchez’s near-perfect no-hitter 13 days ago, the crush of baseball fans discussing Mark Buehrle’s perfect game evens things out a bit.
Not only is Buehrle the 18th person to throw a perfect game (17th to do so in the regular season), the sixth to throw both a no-hitter and a perfect game and the first to do it for either Chicago team, but Buehrle’s game also had what may be the greatest catch in baseball history, considering the direct impact it had on the game’s outcome. DeWayne Wise just bought himself a season’s worth of goodwill on the south side of Chicago after pulling Gabe Kapler‘s no-hitter-ruining homer back into the ball park. Sox manager Ozzie Guillen put Wise in as a defensive replacement for just the final inning. I’ll let some other less clever bloggers make the “Wise choice” pun.
I’m above such silliness.
Great catch. I’ll listen to Willie Mays‘ catch in the ’54 World Series as being better but … yeah, that’s about it.
That catch was astounding enough that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that play becomes more famous in retrospect than the perfect game itself. True, Wise’s leap will forever be handcuffed to the context in which its greatness was born but the replay ability of that moment might render it more recognizable; not unlike Mays’ catch being shown outside the context of that World Series.
Now go wipe the shaving cream off your face, ’cause there are some other facts that need to get sorted out after the jump:
- Even though Buehrle has only has one perfect game to his credit, he’s also the only pitcher in history to face the complete game minimum of 27 batters on three separate occasions: Thursday’s game (obviously), his no-hitter two seasons ago (he walked Sammy Sosa and picked him off later in the inning – classic Sosa!) and July 2004, when he threw a two-hitter in which both batters were retired on double plays.
- Sandy Koufax is the only other pitcher to toss two complete game no-hitters while facing the minimum 27 batters.
- Josh Fields hit a grand slam in the third inning of Buehrle’s no-no, which was only the third no-hitter in which one of those had ever been hit. What makes this noteworthy is that Buehrle’s first no-hitter was one of the other two games. Jermaine Dye hit the salami.
- Both of Buehrle’s no-hitters lasted exactly 123 minutes. Of that 2:03, he was only on the mound for 32 of those minutes.
- The oddest stat of all: The ump behind home plate of this game was the same ump behind home plate to call Buehrle’s first no-hitter. Both the ump, Eric Cooper, and Buehrle wear No. 56.
This last bit begs the question, if you’re Eric Cooper and it’s the seventh inning of Buehrle’s second no-hitter on your watch, do you subconsciously expand the strike zone because you’re only human and can’t help but tingle at the idea of being a part of a perfect game? Or do you shrink the strike zone the same way a scrupulous coach/father avoids playing favoritism with his kid – by being a bit harder on him than all the others?
Or is it possible that umps can remain totally unfazed for the duration of the game?
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