HEY! CC SABATHIA IS THROWING A PERFECT GAME!

Did you see that Sabathia is throwing a perfect game?
That's amazing.

Perfect Games are very hard to get.

I wonder if Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia will complete the perfect game.

I hope nobody puts a hex on Sabathia's perfect game by mentioning that he has a Perfect Game.

You are safe Gambler

It REALLY looked like the Rangers were going to have a combined no hitter tonight. But Joe Mauer got a 2 strike single in the ninth off of Neftali Perez.

No shame in letting up a hit to Joe Mauer.

But I had already written the piece in my head and was going to update the "Most Recent No Hitter" tally.

I don't take the blame myself. I think Joe Mauer's ability was more relevant than my writing a blog post.

So Kenny Rogers's perfect game is STILL the most recent Rangers no hitter.

Padres and Mets remain on the clock.

Kenny Rogers' Perfect Game: The Old School Edition from Luis Alicea on Vimeo.

You are safe Gambler

It REALLY looked like the Rangers were going to have a combined no hitter tonight. But Joe Mauer got a 2 strike single in the ninth off of Neftali Perez.

No shame in letting up a hit to Joe Mauer.

But I had already written the piece in my head and was going to update the "Most Recent No Hitter" tally.

I don't take the blame myself. I think Joe Mauer's ability was more relevant than my writing a blog post.

So Kenny Rogers's perfect game is STILL the most recent Rangers no hitter.

Padres and Mets remain on the clock.

Kenny Rogers' Perfect Game: The Old School Edition from Luis Alicea on Vimeo.

Greg Lee's thoughts on Jim Joyce's call

My friend, the great writer, editor and Giants fan Greg Lee wrote to me after the whole Galaragga/Jim Joyce fiasco.

"Maybe they were shooting a Southwest Airlines "Want to get away?" commercial."

That's the best explanation yet.

Greg Lee's thoughts on Jim Joyce's call

My friend, the great writer, editor and Giants fan Greg Lee wrote to me after the whole Galaragga/Jim Joyce fiasco.

"Maybe they were shooting a Southwest Airlines "Want to get away?" commercial."

That's the best explanation yet.

No Cleveland fans... Galaragga didn't bobble the ball

Cleveland fans are writing on some blogs that the call against Armando Galaragga was good one because he bobbled the ball.

An interesting piece of revisionist history (right up there with Pedro Martinez ATTACKED Don Zimmer in the 2003 ALCS.)

Um, do you know who agrees with you Cleveland fans?
NOBODY!

Not even Jim Joyce used that as a lame excuse.

Here's the clip.

Point out where the bobble is and e mail me at info@sullybaseball.







I thought I told you Cleveland fans to stop watching sports this year!

Jim Joyce becomes an immortal

Seriously... I kind of feel good for Jim Joyce. Most of the times an umpire's name is not part of the story of the game.

Every once in a while an ump does something truly memorable, like Don Denkinger blowing that call in the 1985 World Series or Eric Gregg having a strike zone approximately 5 yards wide and 15 feet high in the 1997 NLCS.

But to TRULY be the story is very rare.

If the Cardinals pulled a double play on the next batter, nobody would have remembered the blown call. And the Braves could have adjusted instead of looking at those wide strikes.

But what Jim Joyce did today was extraordinary.

He blew the final play of a perfect game.

Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game. He did. That's not an opinion... that's a fact. And in real time it looked like he covered first for the final out in time.

In slow motion it looked like... um... it wasn't close.

This wasn't a blown call in the 7th. If an ump blows a call in the 7th, 8th or even the top of the 9th, you can't necessarily say the pitcher would have completed the perfect game. He could relax after letting up a hit.

But with 2 outs in the 9th... there is no other scenario other than "Perfect Game" or "Blown Call" on that grounder.

There have been only 20 perfect games thrown in baseball history (and it seems like 15 of them have been thrown since Mother's Day.) It should be 21.

Why isn't it 21?

Because of Jim Joyce.

And what is the headline for this wonderful game? Is it Armando Galarraga's game of his life?

Nope!

It's Jim Joyce!

And from this day forward when people talk about perfect games and they list perfect games, announcers will say "And remember Armando Galarraga had a perfect game, but the final call was blown by Jim Joyce."

That is epic.

That is knowing this massive bed wetting will be known among the all time bad calls.

Doesn't happen every day for an ump.

Oh and one more thing... did you see Galarraga's reaction?


He was grinning.

Jim Joyce stole his bid for immortality and he had a smile on his face.

How classy was that?
How centered is this guy?

Or maybe he knows that Joyce just got himself his own place in baseball history... and not the way he wants it.


INSTANT REPLAY ANYONE?

The potential downside of Roy Halladay's perfect game

Like a badass responding to a challenge, Roy Halladay would look at Ubaldo Jimenez seemingly pulling away in the Cy Young race and say "Not so fast! I se your no hitter and RAISE YOU A PERFECT GAME!"

(It's also his 3rd complete game shutout this season.)

The downside? The temptation of headline writers to come up with a "Halladay Weekend" pun.

I hope they can resist it.
Please try to

Tell us your thought process, Yahoo Sports

Yahoo Sports lists the Top Batters on each team for each box score. Both the winning and the losing team gets to have a player highlighted.

I guess this is mainly for fantasy purposes.

But I found this entry to be a bit strange.
When Dallas Braden threw his perfect game on Sunday, Yahoo Sports dutifully picked a top batter for Tampa.

They picked Jason Bartlett... who like the rest of the team went 0-3.

So what was the thought process? Was his 0-3 a productive 0-3?
Were they happy he didn't go 0-4?
He DID hit a line drive that was caught... were they giving him credit for actually hitting the ball hard AT someone?

Was it just that he was the lead off batter?

If anyone should have been the performer of the game it should have been Gabe Kapler who fouled off a bunch of pitches in the 6th.

Either way, I doubt there were a lot of people who own Jason Barlett in their fantasy league who looked at his line in the box score and said "YES!"

Dallas Braden's perfect game made me feel badly for someone...

Somewhere in the world there is some shmuck to over thought his fantasy team and said "I'm not going to start Dallas Braden today. The Rays will knock him around."

Whoops.

Well, he now has a perfect game to go with his, as A-Rod called them, handful of wins. And guess what? With a perfect game under his belt, it will mean this whole silly "don't walk over the mound" insanity isn't going away.

But hey! Didn't I tell you to watch the A's/Rays series?

I do know there were 12,228 fans who saw it... but as the years go by there will be tens of thousands of people who will CLAIM to have been there.

The A's are an exciting team now. And they go into Texas for a series where they can get back into first place.

There have GOT to be more than 12,228 people who are interested now!

Either way, you had best not walk over Dallas Braden's mound.

Six Thoughts About Today's Perfect Game

1. I think Ramon Castro might be a good catcher for Mark Buehrle.

Castro had never caught Buehrle before. Usually you hear that a pitcher needs to get used to throwing to a new catcher.

Well, you can't call a better game than Castro did.

2. I guess that other No Hitter doesn't look as cool now!

On April 18, 2007, Buehrle threw a no hitter against the Rangers... and at the time it was the game of his life. He threw a no hitter where he faced the minimum number of batters...

But he walked Sammy Sosa (remember him?) in the 5th inning and then picked him off. 

No need to pick anyone off today.

3. He joins the company of pitchers with more than one no hitter

And here's hoping I get a lot of hits from people who Google "Who has thrown more than one hitter other than Mark Buehrle?"

The answer...

Nolan Ryan has 7 no hitters.

Sandy Koufax has 4.

Larry Corcoran, Bob Feller and Cy Young have 3.

Jim Bunning, Steve Busby, Carl Erskine, Bob Forsch, Pud Galvin, Ken Holtzman, Randy Johnson, Addie Joss, Dutch Leonard, Jim Maloney, Christy Mathewseon, Hideo Nomo, Allie Reynolds, Warren Spahn, Bill Stoneman, Virgil Trucks, Johnny Vander Meer and Don Wilson all have 2.

And now you can add Mark Buehrle to the list.

4. Don't Look Now, But The White Sox Are In First Place

As usual, they won't get any love... but the Tigers are not exactly a juggernaut and the White Sox (lest we forget) are the defending Division Champs... and this is the kind of thing that can spark a team. 

And who are the White Sox playing starting tomorrow? The Tigers!

Man this year is going to be fun!

5. This is his biggest moment as a White Sox pitcher... and that's saying something!

He's had an underratedly awesome 10 seasons in Chicago. He was part of the World Champion squad in 2005 as well as the Division winners in 2000 and 2008.

He's a workhorse who has led the league in innings twice, threw a complete game win in Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS.  He threw 7 solid innings in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series and 2 days later came out of the bullpen to save Game 3.

He's made 4 All Star Teams and was the starting pitcher in the 2005 All Star game, finished 5th in the Cy Young vote that year. 

And this year Obama sought him out in the All Star Game locker room.

Oh yeah, he already threw a no hitter.

But today was the biggest night for him.

6. Would it have killed the Buehrle family to have changed their name to "Burly" when they came through Ellis Island?

I've had to double check his name every time I typed it on this posting. Is it U-E or E-U? And where do I stick this random H again?