Over the weekend, we celebrated the anniversary of Catfish Hunter’s perfect game in 1968. Every perfect game is an amazing feat, but what struck me about Hunter’s was that he was also the hero at the plate, driving in three of his team’s four runs on the day. It’s one thing to be perfect on the mound, but he was nearly perfect on both sides of the ball.
That got me thinking: What’s the most perfect perfect game in history? First, let’s define what complete all-around perfection would look like:
- As pitcher, retire all 27 batters in a row
- As pitcher, retire all 27 of those batters via strikeout
- As batter, reach base in every plate appearance
- As batter, drive in all of your team’s runs, especially the first/go-ahead one
In other words, it would mean never having a negative result and effectively winning the game all on your own.