Perfect Games in Baseball

[amroad17]

Well, today the third perfect game of the season was thrown by Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners, setting a major league record for perfect games in a season.  This is three more than were thrown between 1922-1956 and between 1968-1981.  There have been six thrown in the last four seasons (and there should have been a seventh thanks to a blown call in Detroit in 2010).  It looks like pitchers are taking over after having batters have their way from 1994-2007.  This is good to see as perfect games are exciting in their own way as some of those 14-13 games were around the "turn of the century".   What are some of your thoughts?  Do you prefer 1-0 or 2-0 perfect games or 12-11 slugfests?

[Takumi]

Seeing both on TV is about equal for me, but in person I'd definitely rather see a perfect game, or even just a plain ol' no-hitter. All the no-hitters I've seen on TV have seen the atmosphere at the ballpark get more and more electric as the game goes on. Slugfests can be interminably long, especially if two AL East teams are involved

[amroad17]

You mean those Red Sox-Yankees 4+ hour marathons in the late 90's and the early 2000's?   And some of those were just 4-3 or 6-5 games.

[xonhulu]

Two of the perfect games this year have been in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field in Seattle (as was another no-hitter); that might account for something, although there weren't any no-hitters for years there before that.

A lot of the reason for the relative abundance of perfect games/no-nos in recent decades is probably due both to the evolution of starting pitchers, and the trend towards larger pitching staffs and using relief pitchers later in games; saves wear and tear on the starters.  That wasn't the case decades ago when starters pretty much pitched complete games every time out.

[NE2]

More like perfectly boring games.

[Beltway]

Perfect games are far too rare to conclude anything about why there have been 3 in 2012.

Over the 143 years of Major League Baseball history, there have been only 23 official perfect games by the current definition. More people have orbited the moon than have pitched a major league perfect game.

[Alps]

I've been watching batting averages decline lately. I think this is the comedown from the steroids era. As long as attendance continues to do well despite the recession, don't expect any rules changes back in the batters' favor, but I think it's a matter of time before that happens (mound height, strike zone, etc.)

[amroad17]

Baseball does have its cycles.  From the mid 60's through the mid 70's pitchers dominated more than hitters as some teams had sub 3.00 ERAs and some league leading teams hit in the low to mid .250 range.  In 1968, Carl Yastrzemski  led the AL with a .301 batting average and the Chicago White Sox had a 2.45 team ERA in 1967.  Starting in 1977 hitters started to do much better with higher batting averages and more HRs (George Foster hit 52 HRs that year), culminating with the "steroid era"(1994-2006) where more hitters smacked 50 or more homers than the previous 74 seasons combined(1921-1994).  Since the mid 2000's there have been very few occurences of 50 homer seasons (2 or 3-haven't looked it up) and more no-no's and perfect games.  Perhaps around 2020 we will see less no-no's and more 45-55 HR seasons.  Who knows what will happen?

[Duke87]

A lot of the reason for the relative abundance of perfect games/no-nos in recent decades is probably due both to the evolution of starting pitchers, and the trend towards larger pitching staffs and using relief pitchers later in games; saves wear and tear on the starters.  That wasn't the case decades ago when starters pretty much pitched complete games every time out.

Which is also then how Mariano Rivera can have 608 saves. Note how all of the top ten pitchers on the all time saves list were active within the past 20 years.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

A lot of the reason for the relative abundance of perfect games/no-nos in recent decades is probably due both to the evolution of starting pitchers, and the trend towards larger pitching staffs and using relief pitchers later in games; saves wear and tear on the starters.  That wasn't the case decades ago when starters pretty much pitched complete games every time out.

Which is also then how Mariano Rivera can have 608 saves. Note how all of the top ten pitchers on the all time saves list were active within the past 20 years.

Yeah and there hasn't been a pitcher with 300+ innings pitched in any given season since 1980.

[NYYPhil777]

I've been watching batting averages decline lately. I think this is the comedown from the steroids era. As long as attendance continues to do well despite the recession, don't expect any rules changes back in the batters' favor, but I think it's a matter of time before that happens (mound height, strike zone, etc.)

Next thing you know, athletes will have something better than steriods in the near future.
Like in Back To The Future Part II, look at the 2015 USA Today "Hill Valley Edition" closely and you'll see that a pitcher was suspended for bionic arm use.