Mark Buehrle

File this one under unreal.

In 1880 a guy by the name of Lee Richmond was pitching for the Worcester Ruby Legs of the National Baseball League. On June 12th he faced the Cleveland Blues and tossed the first perfect game in the history of major league baseball. 27 Cleveland hitters went to the plate and all 27 were retired without reaching base.

A perfect game is probably the most unlikely of all individual acheivements in baseball (with the possible exception of an unassisted triple play, there have only been 14 of those). In the 129 years since Lee Richmond did it, it has happened exactly 18 times. Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox threw number 18 yesterday.

Congratulations to Mark Buehrle and the Chicago White Sox. Also, thanks to them as well for doing it against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Here is baseball-almanac.com's perfect game page. Also, for the record, here is their unassisted triple play page.

I would also, being a total Massachusetts homer, like to add that while the first National League perfect game was thrown for Worcester (I bet you didn't even know there used to be a National League team from Worcester), the first American League perfect game was thrown in 1904 by some guy named Cy Young who was pitching for some team from Boston. You knew I was going to throw something pro-Red Sox into this, didn't you. Yeah, you did.