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Since 1991, a perfect game has been defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a complete game victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposition player reaches first base. In short, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batters, or any other baserunners for any reason, even if they are thrown out trying for extra bases. By definition, a perfect game must be both a no-hitter and a shutout. Since the pitcher cannot control whether or not his teammates commit any errors, the pitcher must be backed up by a solid defense to pitch a perfect game. An error which does not allow a baserunner, such as a misplayed foul ball, does not spoil a perfect game.

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.

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

Pitcher, Age	Date	Game
John Lee Richmond (Wor), 23	June 12, 1880	Cleveland Blues, 0 at Worcester Worcesters, 1 Venue: Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds
Monte Ward (Prov), 20	June 17, 1880	Providence Grays, 5 vs. Buffalo Bisons, 0

Modern era

Pitcher, Age	Date	Game
Cy Young (Bos), 37	May 5, 1904	Philadelphia A's, 0 at Boston Americans, 3 Venue: Huntington Avenue Grounds, day game Attendance: 10267, Time: 1:23
Addie Joss (Cle), 28, 74 pitches	October 2, 1908	Chicago White Sox, 0 at Cleveland Naps, 1 Venue: League Park, day game Attendance: 10598, Time: 1:29
Charlie Robertson (Chi), 26, 90 pitches	April 30, 1922	Chicago White Sox, 2 at Detroit Tigers, 0 Venue: Navin Field, day game Attendance: 25000, Time: 1:55
Don Larsen (NYY), 27, 97 pitches	October 8, 1956	Brooklyn Dodgers, 0 at New York Yankees, 2 Venue: Yankee Stadium, day game (Game 5 of the World Series) Attendance: 64519, Time: 2:06
Jim Bunning (Phi), 32, 90 pitches	June 21 , 1964	Philadelphia Phillies, 6 at New York Mets, 0 Venue: Shea Stadium, day game Attendance: 32026, Time: 2:19
Sandy Koufax (LA), 29, 113 pitches	September 9, 1965	Chicago Cubs, 0 at Los Angeles Dodgers, 1 Venue: Dodger Stadium, night game Attendance: 29139, Time: 1:43
Catfish Hunter (Oak), 22, 107 pitches	May 8, 1968	Minnesota Twins, 0 at Oakland A's, 4 Venue: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, night game Attendance: 6298, Time: 2:28
Len Barker (Cle), 25, 103 pitches	May 15, 1981	Toronto Blue Jays, 0 at Cleveland Indians, 3 Venue: Cleveland Stadium, night game Attendance: 7290, Time: 2:09
Mike Witt (Cal), 24, 94 pitches	September 30, 1984	California Angels, 1 at Texas Rangers, 0 Venue: Arlington Stadium, day game Attendance: 8375, Time: 1:49
Tom Browning (Cin), 28, 102 pitches	September 16, 1988	Los Angeles Dodgers, 0 at Cincinnati Reds, 1 Venue: Riverfront Stadium, night game Attendance: 16591, Time: 1:51
Dennis Martinez (Mon), 36, 95 pitches	July 28, 1991	Montreal Expos, 2 at Los Angeles Dodgers, 0 Venue: Dodger Stadium, day game Attendance: 45560, Time: 2:14
Kenny Rogers (Tex), 29, 98 pitches	July 28, 1994	California Angels, 0 at Texas Rangers, 4 Venue: The Ballpark in Arlington, night game Attendance: 46581, Time: 2:08
David Wells (NYY), 34, 120 pitches	May 17, 1998	Minnesota Twins, 0 at New York Yankees, 4 Venue: Yankee Stadium, day game Attendance: 49820, Time: 2:40
David Cone (NYY), 36, 88 pitches	July 18, 1999	Montreal Expos, 0 at New York Yankees, 6 Venue: Yankee Stadium, day game Attendance: 41930, Time: 2:16 (not including a 33-minute rain delay)
Randy Johnson (Ari), 40, 117 pitches	May 18, 2004	Arizona Diamondbacks, 2 at Atlanta Braves, 0 Venue: Turner Field, night game Attendance: 23381, Time: 2:13

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. The definition is also questionable because of rules in minor league baseball where doubleheaders may be two seven-inning games.

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, and for many years, it was listed as a special mention. The 12 perfect innings remains a record.

July 9th 1969 Tom Seaver retires the first 25 Cubs at Shea Stadium when Jimmy Qualis breaks it up. As of June 2006 the Mets have never had a no hitter.

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. 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, where each game was called 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

Hooks Wiltse (Giants, July 4, 1908) hit Philadelphia Phillie pitcher George McQuillan with two out in the ninth.
Tommy Bridges (Tigers, Aug. 5, 1932) gave up a pinch-hit single to Dave Harris in a 13-0 win against the Senators.
Billy Pierce (White Sox, June 27, 1958) gave up a double, which landed just inches in fair territory, to Washington's Ed Fitzgerald.
Milt Pappas (Cubs, Sept. 3, 1972) lost a perfect game against San Diego due to a walk on a borderline 3-2 pitch to pinch hitter Larry Stahl. The umpire was a first year man, Bruce Froemming, who would go on to umpire in a record 11 no-hitters. About 25 years later, a Chicago radio personality, during an interview with Pappas, got Froemming on the phone and the two argued on the air.
Milt Wilcox (Tigers, April 15, 1983) lost a perfect game on a single by Chicago White Sox Jerry Hairston.
Ron Robinson (Reds, May 2, 1988) gave up a hit to the 27th batter, Wallace Johnson (Expos). Robinson then allowed a two-run homer to Tim Raines and was removed from the game.
Dave Stieb (Toronto, Aug. 4, 1989) gave up a double to Roberto Kelly followed by an RBI single by Steve Sax.
Brian Holman (Seattle, April 20, 1990) gave up a home run to Oakland Athletic Ken Phelps.
Mike Mussina's second perfect game bid (his first was spoiled with one out in the 9th inning on May 30, 1997) was halted when he gave up a two strike pinch hit single to 27th batter Carl Everett in a nationally televised game in Fenway Park on September 2, 2001. When asked after the game if he had been thinking about the chance of a perfect game throughout the course of the game, Mussina coyly replied that of course he had.

Other notable near-perfect games

Cy Young (again) in 1908 came within a walk of another perfect game in his third no-hitter.
In his pitching debut, Addie Joss gave up a leadoff hit to Jesse Burkett of the St. Louis Browns. He retired the next twenty-six batters he faced.
Sandy Koufax walked one batter in his third no-hitter, against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964.
On July 23, 1880, pitching against Cincinnati barely a month after his perfect game, Ward allowed a leadoff single and then retired 27 batters in a row.
In a 2000 spring training game (for which statistics are not kept rigorously, due to the varying levels of competition), the Red Sox used six pitchers to retire all 27 Blue Jays batters in a 5-0 victory.
On Sept. 24, 1919, Waite Hoyt, pitching for the Red Sox against the Yankees, gave up three singles in a row in the second inning. He then retired the next three batters to get out of the inning, and did not allow another baserunner until Wally Pipp tripled with one out in the 13th inning of a 1-1 game. Hoyt was perfect for 11 1/3 innings, retiring 34 consecutive batters. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly, and Hoyt lost 2-1.
On Sept. 18, 1971, Rick Wise, pitching for Philadelphia against Chicago, gave up a home run to lead off the Cubs 2nd inning, and did not allow another baserunner until Ron Santo singled with two out in the 12th inning. Wise was perfect for 10 2/3, retiring 32 consecutive batters. He would go on to pitch a 12-inning complete game and win 4-3. The losing pitcher was Milt Pappas, who would have his near-perfect game one year later.

Japan Pro Baseball perfect games

Date	Pitcher (Club)	Score	Opponent	Ballpark
June 28, 1950	Hideo Fujimoto (Yomiuri Giants)	4-0	Nishi-Nippon Pirates	Aomori Stadium
June 19, 1955	Fumio Takechi (Kintetsu Pearls)	1-0	Daiei Stars	Osaka Stadium
September 19, 1956	Yoshitomo Miyaji (Kokutetsu Swallows)	6-0	Hiroshima Carp	Kanazawa Stadium
August 21, 1957	Masaichi Kaneda (Kokutetsu Swallows)	1-0	Chunichi Dragons	Chunichi Stadium
July 19, 1958	Sadao Nishimura (Nishitetsu Lions)	1-0	Toei Flyers	Komazawa Stadium
August 11, 1960	Gentaro Shimada (Taiyo Whales)	1-0	Ōsaka Tigers	Kawasaki Stadium
June 20, 1961	Yoshimi Moritaki (Kokutetsu Swallows)	1-0	Chunichi Dragons	Korakuen Stadium
May 1, 1966	Yoshiro Sasaki (Taiyo Whales)	1-0	Hiroshima Carp]	Hiroshima Municipal Stadium
May 12, 1966	Tsutomu Tanaka (Nishitetsu Lions)	2-0	Nankai Hawks	Heiwadai Stadium
September 14, 1968	Yoshiro Sotokoba (Hiroshima Toyo Carp)	2-0	Taiyo Whales	Hiroshima Municipal Stadium
October 6, 1970	Koichiro Sasaki (Kintetsu Buffaloes)	3-0	Nankai Hawks	Osaka Stadium
August 21, 1971	Yoshimasa Takahashi (Toei Flyers)	4-0	Nishitetsu Lions	Korakuen Stadium
October 10, 1973	Soroku Yagisawa (Lotte Orions)	1-0	Taiheiyo Club Lions	Sendai Miyagi Stadium
August 31, 1978	Yutaro Imai (Hankyu Braves)	5-0	Lotte Orions	Sendai Miyagi Stadium
May 18, 1994	Hiromi Makihara (Yomiuri Giants)	6-0	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Fukuoka Dome

Fiction

The movie For Love Of The Game (Universal Pictures, 1999) has the main character, Billy Chappel (Kevin Costner), pitch a perfect game at Yankee Stadium. There is a reference made by one of the commentators, stating he narrated the 1956 Larsen perfect game, also at Yankee Stadium. The film was based on a short novel of the same name by author Michael Shaara.

Notes and Trivia

Richmond and Ward threw their perfect games in the 19th century, when the rules were fundamentally different than the other games in this list. For example, pitching was underhanded (the hand could not rise above the belt) and was only 45 feet away from home plate, 8 balls were required for a walk, hitters were not awarded first when hit by a pitch, fielders did not use gloves (resulting in many more errors than the modern game) and hitters could direct a high or low ball. These two games' 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.
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 innings without a hit, which is still a record) and a scoreless innings streak (45 straight innings without a run, which was then a record).
Robertson's perfect game was his fourth game in the big leagues, and only his third start.
Don Larsen and David Wells attended the same high school: Point Loma High School, San Diego, California.
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.
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 to left-fielder Lou Johnson in the seventh inning. The runner did not advance past second base. The Dodgers scored their only run in the fifth inning, Lou Johnson reached first on a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, attempted a steal of third, and scored when the Cubs catcher Chris Krug overthrew third base. This is the only game in history where only one player reached base.
Witt's perfect game came on the last day of the 1984 season.
The start of Browning's game was delayed 2 1/2 hours by rain.
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 the 1956 game, threw out the first pitch to Berra, who had been his catcher during the series.
In the bottom of the third inning, rain delayed Cone's game for 33 minutes.
The winning run in the games of Richmond, Joss, Koufax, Witt, Browning, and Martinez were unearned.
No pitcher has ever thrown two MLB perfect games, but catcher Ron Hassey caught two: Barker's and Martinez's. Shortstop Alfredo Griffin played for the losing team in the perfect games of Barker, Browning and Martinez. Right fielder Paul O'Neill played for the winning team in the perfect games of Browning, Wells and Cone.

References

27 Men Out, Michael Coffey, Atria Books, NY, 2004
The Perfect Game: A Classic Collection of Facts..., Mark Alvarez, Taylor, 1993
Perfect!, Ron Meyer, 1991
Perfect, James Buckley, Jr, 2002
www.baseball-almanac.com

External links

@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 On [[June 23]], [[1917 in baseball|1917]], [[Babe Ruth]] ([[Boston Red Sox]]) walked the first batter in a game against the [[Minnesota Twins|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 in baseball|1959]], [[Harvey Haddix]] of the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]] carried a perfect game through an amazing twelve innings against the [[Atlanta Braves|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, and for many years, it was listed as a special mention. The 12 perfect innings remains a record.
+[[July 9th 1969]] [[Tom Seaver]] retires the first 25 [[Cubs]] at [[Shea Stadium]] when Jimmy Qualis breaks it up. As of June 2006 the [[Mets]] have never had a no hitter.
 On [[June 3]], [[1995 in baseball|1995]], [[Pedro Martinez]] of the [[Washington Nationals|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.