Baseball Offers Perfection

A player can score 100 points in a basketball game or complete every single one of their passes in a football game. But, nothing compares to the absolute perfection of a baseball game that features the minimum number of batters: 27.

Not a hit. Not a walk, nor a hit batter. Not even an error.

A perfect game.

The pitcher dominates the opposing team entirely, from the first pitch until the final out. The result is a scorecard without a single blemish, without a single line drawn from home to first base.

Such a game is so rare that just 18 have occurred in 134 years of Major League Baseball. When Don Larsen threw his perfect game in the world series--the only postseason perfect game--it marked the first time a pitcher had been perfect in over 34 years.

The incredible fact is that in the last 16 years--the heart of the steroids era--there have been FIVE perfect games. Five different pitchers went through potent line-ups to accomplish the feat.

Four of the five came from the American League, where the pitcher does not have the luxury of pitching to his opponent on the mound three times.

The team effort behind a perfect game cannot be ignored. The pitcher can not control his fielders behind him. In Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009 it took a leaping catch by DeWayne Wise to keep the game perfect. A simple bobble on a routine ground ball is all it takes to tarnish an otherwise perfect outing.

To anyone who has witnessed a perfect game: I promise you that they will never forget what they saw. The history that they took in first-hand is something so few have been a part of.

To take part in the perfection baseball offers is an absolute gift.

The perfection carries farther than the game itself...it reaches to all of us. The chance to be perfect is real in baseball.