"PERFECTIONS OF AN IMPERFECT GAME..."

We can’t all be perfect.

But these days, it seems that it’s becoming easier to go unblemished on the pitching mound.

Baseball prides itself on its imperfections, the anomalies unique solely inside its diamond-shaped heart.

It’s a place where flawlessness is usually reserved for myth.

So, when a pitcher tosses a perfect game, it’s considered entry into an elite fraternity — presumably Epsilon Tau Alpha or ERA to the non-Greek-speaking layman.

It’s a caste of 20 players dating back to 1880 that’s about as privileged as it is fickle when it comes to its enrollment.

Despite the discretionary company, it appears, in an age caricatured by hulking hitters, that it is now easier to toss a perfect game — AKA 27 batters up, 27 batters slink back to the dugout without reaching base.

There have been 11 perfect games thrown since Len Barker, a man known around the Cleveland Indian clubhouse as “the Big Donkey,” got stubborn with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1981.

That’d be a dozen perfectos, had Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga not been fleeced by Jim Joyce. The first-base umpire incorrectly ruled what would have been the final out of Galarraga’s June 2 bid in Detroit to become the fraternity’s 21st member.

Conversely, MLB only witnessed the feat nine times in the 100 years prior to Barker’s perfect game.

That’s an average of one every three years in the post-Barker era, as opposed to one every 11 years dating back to the 19th century.

Perhaps MLB’s new steroid-testing policy has done to the long ball what debit cards did to the panhandling industry — that is, systematically destroy a once-profitable market.

Maybe it’s the pitchers who are much stronger? Of the 65 players suspended by MLB since 2004 for using performance-enhancing supplements, 34 of them were pitchers.

None of them — it should be noted — are members of the perfect game fraternity.

While it can’t be determined whether or not science is being used to gain perfection, we can use science to predict the next one.

Of the 20 perfect game thrown, seven of them have been thrown in May — the most of any month by far.

None have ever been tossed under the humidity of August.

Chalk it up to fresh arms, colder weather and chillier bats.

PERFECT GAMES BY MONTH



April – 1

May – 7

June – 3

July – 4

August – 0

Sept. – 3

Oct. – 2

It also helps to be pitching on the Lord’s Day to trap a little divine mound magic. Seven of the 20 perfect games occurred on a Sunday afternoon — the most of any day of the week.

Also a mere six of the 20 have been thrown on the road.

Does a foreign city plus the lure of performance inhibitors equate to perfection?

Only one has been thrown on a Tuesday. Monday’s only perfect game was the biggest anomaly of them all: Don Larsen’s call to perfection in the 1956 World Series.

Saturday has played host to two bouts with history. They happened 130 years apart in 2010 (Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies) and 1880 (Lee Richmond, Worcester Ruby Legs).

PERFECT GAMES BY DAY OF THE WEEK
 
Sunday – 7

Saturday – 2

Friday – 3

Thursday – 3

Wednesday – 3

Tuesday – 1

Monday – 1

All of these pitchers in this class of perfection have proven to be fallible.

One of Cy Young’s MLB-record 511 career wins was perfect; but the former Cleveland Spiders is also credited with the most losses (316) in history.

There are as many pitchers with losing career records (five) in the perfect game frat as there are hall of famers.

As Joyce, Galarraga and the rest of baseball were painfully reminded last week:

Nobodie’s perfekt.

PERFECT GAME NOTES

The Florida Marlins are selling roughly 13,000 of the unsold tickets to Roy Halladay’s perfect game on May 29 in Miami. Tickets are going for face value and are selling faster than Halladay shut the Marlins.

…

Dennis Martinez (1991) and Kenny Rogers (1994) threw perfect games three years to the day on July 28.

…

Eight of the perfect games thrown have come from left-handed pitchers.

…

The combined career record of pitchers who have thrown perfect games is 3,351-2,424.

PERFECT GAMES

Roy Halladay, R*

May 29, 2010

Saturday

Dallas Braden, L

May 9, 2010

Sunday

Mark Buehrle, L

July 23, 2009

Thursday

Randy Johnson, L*

May 18, 2004

Tuesday

David Cone, R

July 18, 1999

Sunday

David Wells, L

May 17, 1998

Sunday

Kenny Rogers, L

July 28, 1994

Thursday

Dennis Martinez, R*

July 28, 1991

Sunday

Tom Browning, L

September 16, 1988

Friday

Mike Witt, R*

September 30, 1984

Sunday

Len Barker, R

May 15, 1981

Friday

Catfish Hunter, R

May 8, 1968

Wednesday

Sandy Koufax, L

September 29, 1965

Wednesday

Jim Bunning, R*

June 21, 1964

Sunday

Don Larsen, R

Oct. 8, 1956

Monday

Charlie Robertson, R*

April 30, 1922

Sunday

Addie Joss, R

Oct. 2, 1908

Friday

Cy Young, R

May 5, 1904

Wednesday

John Montgomery Ward, R

June 17, 1880

Thursday

Lee Richmond, L

June 12, 1880

Saturday

*Road Game

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"FROM THE MOUTHS OF ATHLETES..."

“It’s unbelievable. We just won the Stanley Cup. I can’t believe this just happened. Holy crap.”







- Patrick Kane being interviewed Wednesday on NBC after his overtime goal in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals delivered the Chicago Blackhawks their first Stanley Cup in 49 years.

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"FROM THE MOUTHS OF ATHLETES..."

"I guess I wasn't thinking."

- University of Arizona shortstop K'Lee Arredondo on what she was thinking right before hitting a 2-run home run in the sixth inning of Sunday's NCAA Softball World Series semifinals that propelled the Wildcats to a win over Tennessee. Arizona faces UCLA in a best-of-three finals starting tonight at 8 EST.

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"DUKE COACH VIC BUBAS ON JOHN WOODEN"

There are very few college basketball coaches who can boast that they’ve beaten John Wooden more than once at his own game.

You need a hall-of-fame pedigree and the same Hoosier-state blood coursing through your veins to topple the almighty.

You need to be former Duke University head coach Vic Bubas , who, to put Wooden’s career in perspective, carved out a prestigious hall-of-fame career of his own, despite winning 451 less games than the legendary UCLA coach.

You won’t, however, hear Bubas brag. In fact, one of the fondest memories the former Blue Devil holds dear of Wooden is the time the Bruins beat Duke in the 1964 NCAA Championship game and the lifetime of friendship the game set in motion.

The title was the first of many for Wooden — 10 in 12 years to be exact. Bubas playfully hounded Wooden for a "thank you" every time the two got together.

On June 4, Bubas and the world lost the basketball legend and inspired-humanitarian, who passed away at the age of 99.

Bubas reflects on his friend, colleague and teacher:

Christopher C. Wuensch

Sad news to hear about the passing of Coach Wooden. How close were you to him? You certainly crossed paths back in the day.

Vic Bubas

We played each other five times. The first time we met in the Final Four and in the championship game; that was in ’64. They beat us by like 12 or so, maybe 15, I’ve forgotten the score (UCLA 98, Duke 83,) but that was their first championship. That’s when they started their run.

The following year we entered into a two-year agreement where he agreed to come to Duke for a game. Then we played another game the following night in Charlotte and we were able to win both of those games handily.

The year after that was Kareem’s (Abdul Jabbar) — he was still known as Lew Alcindor back then — first year on the varsity at UCLA. They beat us rather handily both times on their home court.

Off the court, we had a good relationship. I was in several clinics with him, went to banquets and so on. We were pretty good friends. Both of us were from the state of Indiana.

CCW

That was my next question. You’re both Indiana boys, correct?

VB

Yeah. He was legendary way back then. His team ( Martinsville High School ) won the high school championship. He then goes to Purdue and was an All-American. His whole basketball coaching and playing career was nothing but a success. I enjoyed my relationship with him, enjoyed competing against him.

Of course, when he went on his run (10 titles in 12 years,) he made it tough on everybody else. I don’t know if that will ever be accomplished again. That’s kind of unbelievable.

I think the thing that I admired most about John Wooden is the fact that in addition to being a great coach, he was a great person.

He was good for the game . He was a terrific example for the young men that he coached and a good influence on them. I think the coaching profession was very lucky to have somebody who, other than just winning, was as good as John was in everything in his relationship with people, with his players, the whole thing.

We lost a dear friend, but he lived a long and fruitful life. He had a wonderful wife and he always talked about her. There was hardly a time where he wouldn’t refer to her as one of his big inspirations to do well and do the right thing.

CCW

What was he like in person?

VB

The reputation he had was that he was a great teacher. Everybody understood that he was a great coach. He spoke of himself as more of a teacher than as a coach.

CCW

Did he have a different persona on the court than he did away from it?

VB

No, I think he was pretty even. But at the same time, even though he was professorial, if you want to call it that, and they referred to him as the professor at times, he did it the right way. He could get after officials and get after his players, but it was never in a crude way. It was just a way of making sure that everybody stayed motivated without using words that would be embarrassing. He stayed away from all that stuff. He was really a clean example for all of us to follow.

CCW

He was a contemporary of yours, but did you find yourself learning from him?

VB

Oh sure. But by the same token, coaches are always learning from each other. When John would be talking, either at a clinic or a banquet or coaching or whatever, everybody paid close attention because his record was so good and he was so humble. He always gave credit to the players and the people that surrounded him to try to take the emphasis off of himself. He left quite a pattern for the rest of us to try to follow and, of course, for the coaches today.

CCW

Did it seem like back in the ‘60s, his teams were always standing in the way of you winning more titles?

VB

They stood in a lot of people’s way (laughs) when you win as many championships as he did. What was it 10 out of 12 or something like that? Along the way he beat a lot of people. But the game was better as a result of it.

Here’s another thing that people don’t realize. When he was on top for so long, that meant that his preparation had to be exceptionally good. People would really try to beat him.

When you run around with a target on your back and everybody in the world can’t wait to play you because that would be a feather in their hat if they beat him…why that’s quite a burden to carry. He didn’t let his team be overwhelmed by that.

He said he was satisfied with them if they gave him their very best effort. If you give it your best effort, that’s good enough for him.

CCW

He prided himself as being a teacher, but what made him so successful? Was it the preparation?

VB

First of all, you have to be honest about it. I don’t care which coach you’re talking about. When you’re winning big and, particularly if you’re winning championships, the one thing that you must have is good players — somewhere between good and great.

John had great talent, but, when you have that, then you have to figure ways to work together and reach their potential. He did that marvelously . He emphasized team play versus individual, although he had a lot of individual stars, also. He knew how to blend the talent and he knew how to recruit the good players and I think players enjoyed playing for him and stayed in school.

I think one of the things he didn’t have to face that modern coaches face today is what to do with these players that have the talent to sign professionally after one year of college. If that were the case back then, I think it would have been much more difficult for John to put that kind of run together.

But he was a great coach and he might even do it under present conditions. With everybody trying to catch him, plus the new pro rules, it would be very difficult. But that is to take nothing away from what he did. There is nobody that’s going to approach that kind of thing. There’ll be coaches that win a few championships, but not with the magnitude like he did.

CCW

Do you have a favorite John Wooden story?

VB

I used to always tease him when we’d get together for a banquet or something out in public, where I knew he was in the audience.

The first time I did this he was taken aback a little bit, I said “John you never did thank me.”

He says “for what?”


I said “for launching you on your career. The championship you won against us was your first one. So I really launched you and I’ve never heard you say thank you, yet.”

So we used to laugh about that.

CCW

Did he have a good sense of humor?

VB

Oh yeah. John was a pleasant guy. He was.

CCW

He sounds like an amazing man.

VB

We were lucky to have him in the profession. That’s what you hope for. That’s what you work for and it’s very hard to come by because of the pressures and the temptations that go with the job today.

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"WOODEN SOLDIERS: John Wooden 1910-2010"

John Wooden came as close to Sainthood as one man could without sprouting wings.

Today's selection from the vault celebrates the life of the legendary UCLA basketball coach, who passed away on June 4 at the age of 99.

This selection is from the 2005 article I did for the Explorer Newspapers in Tucson, Ariz., in which the players from a small Christian school in Oro Valley, Ariz., got the opportunity to sit down with the coach.

Turns out, a few hours with Wooden was enough to turn around the team's misfortunes.

"WOODEN SOLDIER: Chance meeting with legendary coach propels Lions"

By Christopher C. Wuensch

02.02.05

Explorer Newspapers

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"PLAY ON, WORDS...LAMAR ODOM or ALARM DOOM?"

WAKE UP CALL

It’s time for the Los Angeles Lakers to wake up in time for the NBA Finals. To do so, they’ll need to rely on Lamar Odom, whose name can be rearranged to spell “Alarm Doom.”









…

As long as we’re rearranging letters, Nomar Garciaparra signed a one-day contract earlier this season with the caveat of retiring as a Boston Red Sox. One of the more unique names in all of sports, we’re lucky Nomar’s father, Ramon, only reversed the spelling of his son’s first name and not his last. I would have quit sports writing before spelling out Ramon Arrapaicrag on a consistent basis.


…

Begin typing “When was the last time the…” into Google and the search engine’s first suggestion is “the New York Jets won a Superbowl?.”

Other championship droughts that Google suggests include the Viking, Cowboys, Saint, Colts and Cubs.

It also spits out the suggestion “the planets aligned?.”

The answer, of course, is same as the last time the Cubs won a World Series.

So what else does Google suggest based on the start of common queries?

A few examples (at least according to my computer settings):

Begin by typing:

Is it illegal for a…man to marry his widow’s sister?

Answer: ‘Till death did we part…


When is it appropriate to…say I love you?

Let’s let www.myfemalesexuality.com handle that one. Instead we’ll jump to Google’s next suggestion:


When is it appropriate to…use a semicolon?

The answers; vary


At what point…does a cell phone become a living thing?

No answer is given, but it sure beats answering the next Google option:


At what point…does a girl become a woman?

Sounds like another question for Myfemalesexuality.com.


How do you play…curling?

Not exactly grammatically correct, but I believe you start by going to the liquor store and buying a six-pack of Labatt Blue.


Who was the first player…to sign with the New England Whalers?

Answer: Larry Pleau; you had to ask?


How many athletes…use steroids?

Answer: None, wink, wink…


…

Speaking of drugs in the sports place, introducing the MLB ALL GANJA TEAM:

Tobi Stoner, P – Mets

Justin Smoak, 1B - Rangers

Jung Bong, P – Braves

B.J. Weed, OF – Angels

Bret Hemphill, C – Angels

Darren Grass, C – Padres

Brandon Puffer, P – Twins

John Danks, P – White Sox

All-Marijuana Team Hall-of-Fame:

Herb Hash, P – Red Sox

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