BY DEFINITION, one can’t be any better than perfect. Unless you want to make the case that David Cone was.
True, 27 up-and-down is exactly 27 up-and-down, whether the feat was performed by a career nobody like Len Barker – or Sandy Koufax, the most dominant left-handed pitcher ever. On the multiple-choice test major league pitchers have been taking daily for 130 years, only 16 of them have ever gotten them all right.
Granted, it can be argued that two essays subjectively graded at 100, even by the same teacher, are never equally good. And neither were the teams faced by history’s perfect pitchers, nor the plays made behind them to save their days.
Cone threw 88 pitches Sunday, an astounding 3.25 per batter, and a significant 32 fewer than David Wells did 14 months ago in his perfect game. It made us wonder if anybody had ever breezed through a lineup like Cone breezed through the Expos. And begged the question: Was this one of the most impressive perfect games in history? Or, considering the caliber of the opposition, the easiest?
One day’s research, most of which was done by Andre Freeman in The Post’s library, revealed at least one other perfect pitcher beat Cone’s 88 deliveries: The Phillies’ Jim Bunning needed only 86 in 1964 against the Mets.
So Cone did not pitch the least stressful perfect game in history, even if the Expos swung like they were lobotomized. Those 1964 Mets weren’t exactly Murderer’s Row, as if anybody in Philadelphia today really remembers, let alone laments.
Point is, you either are perfect or you are not, an essential truth reinforced by the fact that the guy who pitched clearly the greatest game in history is now an asterisk.
In 1958, Harvey Haddix of the Pirates threw 12 perfect innings at Milwaukee, only to lose in the 13th after third baseman Don Hoak threw away a ground ball. A bunt and intentional walk put men on first and second for Joe Adcock, whose three-run homer turned into a one-run double when Henry Aaron, who was on first, neglected to continue past second.
A rules committee, ruling that whether a game lasts nine innings or extra innings, a baserunner is a baserunner and the game therefore, imperfect, eventually removed Haddix’ performance from the perfect list, even if he went nine batters longer than anybody ever did without letting anyone on base.
Haddix, who shut down the two-time defending National League champions, was better than just perfect, of course. So was Don Larsen, who used only 94 pitches to stymie the World Champion Dodgers in a World Series. Considering the stakes and the quality of opposition, Larsen’s performance must rank next after Haddix’ in the single-game pitching performances in history.
Catfish Hunter’s perfect game in 1968 came against the defending American League champion Twins of Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, and Rod Carew. Cincinnati’s Tom Browning pitched his in September, 1988 against the Dodgers, who would go on to become World Champions.
Most perfect games have been pitched against mediocre to bad teams, however. So Cone’s accomplishment has hardly been diminished by the quality of the opposition, even if the Expos’ inexperience obviously was a factor.
Cone never went to ball three, got behind 2-0 only once, when Jose Vidro hit a smash up the middle that Chuck Knoblauch grabbed off a nice hop, and really needed only one above-average play – Paul O’Neill’s sliding catch of Terry Jones’ first-inning drive. Cone looked so unhittable that Joe Torre started to sense history as early as the fourth, when Cone weathered the 33-minute delay and Expos were swinging through his slider as if they were trying to drive rainwater.
“It was like a walk in the park,” said the manager. “He had so many weapons and it looked like he could use them anytime he wanted. Unless you guess right, you are going to have a tough time putting a good swing on the ball.
“Of course, that’s not to say you can’t bloop one.”
Right. Even somebody from a totally overmatched Expo lineup, could have blooped one. Somebody on the bad teams always did against Steve Carlton, Warren Spahn, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and so many dominating pitchers who had perfect stuff on most starts but never perfect luck.
A lot of teams more tired than the Expos after playing a night game in Baltimore have managed at least one baserunner against pitchers with more dominating careers than Cone’s. And many pitchers who looked unhittable before a rain delay, returned throwing batting practice, more credit to Cone.
Anyone who wants to argue that this perfect game wasn’t anything to write home about should be sentenced to start writing “sixteen in history.” And allowed to stop only when the next perfect game is pitched.
