#17? What the hell is Mako talking about? Well, tonight, Randy Johnson just threw the 17th perfect game in Major League Baseball history. Just some very rough math. Assume 20 teams in Major League Baseball. Assume a season of 150 games. The modern era began in 1900 but let's just make it an even 100 years. Do the math and that equals 300,000 games played in the last 100 years. Of those 300,000 games a total of 17 have been perfect games. That makes one perfect game out of every 17,647 games played. Or, looked at another way, there's one perfect game about every six years. An absolutely amazing feat for a man about 3 months shy of 41 years old. (Maybe someone with a baseball almanac can tell us exactly how many games have been played over the years).

Lets just say that it's pretty rare....

I'm glad he got a standing ovation from the Atlanta crowd. Anytime a pitcher does this, it should be applauded, no matter where he is playing.

I'm just glad Atlanta didn't resort to bunting in the 9th to break the perfect game, as some other a-hole teams have done in the past.

Why would a guy be an a-hole for bunting? You're team is only down 2 runs. You need to get something going and conventional attempts to hit haven't worked to that point so why not try to make the pitcher work and shake things up a little. After all you are trying to find ways to win the game. And if you don't want a bunt to break up a perfect game then someone better field it and make a play. I don't think that is asking too much from a major league infielder. Ultimately, the opposing team should not not be concerned about someone's perfect game and need to find ways to win instead.

Kudos to the Big Unit. A truly amazing accomplishment, particularly for a guy his age. A real inspiration for all of us who are getting a little long in the tooth.

MAKO Wrote:#17?  What the hell is Mako talking about?  Well, tonight, Randy Johnson just threw the 17th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.  Just some very rough math.  Assume 20 teams in Major League Baseball.  Assume a season of 150 games.  The modern era began in 1900 but let's just make it an even 100 years.  Do the math and that equals 300,000 games played in the last 100 years.  Of those 300,000 games a total of 17 have been perfect games.  That makes one perfect game out of every 17,647 games played.  Or, looked at another way, there's one perfect game about every six years.  An absolutely amazing feat for a man about 3 months shy of 41 years old.  (Maybe someone with a baseball almanac can tell us exactly how many games have been played over the years).

I think you may have double-counted the games. (Each team has an opponent every night that also is an MLB team.) When I was doing the rough estimate in my head during my morning run, trying to account for expansion, etc., I settled on "over 80,000 National League games since 1900" as a good first cut.

In any event, it's a rare feat -- and one to celebrate. The Devil Children had a great time watching the SportsCenter highlights and reading the sports front in the Post this morning.

Brody Wrote:Why would a guy be an a-hole for bunting? You're team is only down 2 runs. You need to get something going and conventional attempts to hit haven't worked to that point so why not try to make the pitcher work and shake things up a little. After all you are trying to find ways to win the game. And if you don't want a bunt to break up a perfect game then someone better field it and make a play. I don't think that is asking too much from a major league infielder. Ultimately, the opposing team should not not be concerned about someone's perfect game and need to find ways to win instead.

It's chicken******. Curt Shilling had a no-hitter broken up last year with a bunt. Go up and whiff like a man.

Congrats to the Big Unit, and I agree KT - very classy of the Braves fans to give him the ovation he deserved.

Of what I can remember- he's the best pitcher in the recent past to throw a perfect game.

Damn I wish I hadn't ignored the Braves game on TV like I always do.

DogTracks Wrote:Of what I can remember- he's the best pitcher in the recent past to throw a perfect game.

Damn I wish I hadn't ignored the Braves game on TV like I always do.

That's the funny thing about baseball. It's at its "best" when nothing happens.

Feel free to let Flying Swoosh know I wrote that.

I got a phone call from my brother-in-law at about 9:45 or so last night.

"I JUST SAW RANDY JOHNSON PITCH A PERFECT GAME!"

He was in Atlanta on business this week and last night was their last night in town, so they decided to catch a Braves game.

Talk about lucky!

DrTorch Wrote:

DogTracks Wrote:Of what I can remember- he's the best pitcher in the recent past to throw a perfect game.

Damn I wish I hadn't ignored the Braves game on TV like I always do.

That's the funny thing about baseball. It's at its "best" when nothing happens.

Feel free to let Flying Swoosh know I wrote that.

Well, I know baseball lacks the intellectual subtlety and refinement of your favorite sport, professional wrestling. I suppose putting those spider-man webs on the bases would have been a step in the right direction, but we baseball fans are hopelessly old-fashioned.

BTW, all we Huskie fans aren't connected psychically to the hive; I've never spoken w Dog Tracks in my life.

Flying Corn Wrote:BTW, all we Huskie fans aren't connected psychically to the hive; I've never spoken w Dog Tracks in my life.

Apparently Flying Corn has been gone for too long and will need to be reassimilated.

Flying Corn Wrote:Well, I know baseball lacks the intellectual subtlety and refinement of your favorite sport, professional wrestling.

You start criticizing professional wrestling, and I'll be glad to go ECW! :chair: :chair:

DrTorch Wrote:

Flying Corn Wrote:Well, I know baseball lacks the intellectual subtlety and refinement of your favorite sport, professional wrestling.

You start criticizing professional wrestling, and I'll be glad to go ECW! :chair: :chair:

Not a chance; I just find it ceasingly amusing that a man of your intellectual calibre is such a huge fan of the sport.
Besides, it would be enormously hypocritical of me, as I spent WAY too much time watching "rassling" back in the WWF salad days of Rowdy Roddy Piper, Superfly Snuka, Sgt. Slaughter, the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan and, of course, Jesse "The Governor" Ventura.

I haven't watched in a long time, however. It's a little too intense and frenetic for me these days. We old farts prefer the slow-paced civility of the national passtime.