CLEVELAND, Ohio – I recently had the chance to sit down with Lenny Barker and talk about his perfect game from May 15, 1981 for my book “Cleveland’s Finest”. We relived the inning by inning drama. Here below is an excerpt from that book.
Lenny Barker took the mound on the night of May 15th in front of a crowd of 7,290 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Their opponents for the game were the struggling Toronto Blue Jays led by manager, Bobby Mattick. Taking the mound for the Jays was Luis Leal, who at that point in the season was a modest 2-3.