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Perfect : The Inside Story of Baseball's Sixteen Perfect Games
Only 16 pitchers in the past 122 years have completed the most rare feat in all of sports—the perfect game. Each perfect game is examined individually with firsthand accounts from the pitcher, his teammates, opponents, coaches, managers, and sportswriters who were there that day. In addition to the 16 record setters, Buckley has researched all the other pitchers who were one pitch from history.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2002
61 people want to read
About the author
James Buckley Jr.
298 books69 followersIn addition to his work as a professional editor, James Buckley, Jr., is also the author of many books on American sports that are geared toward young fans and budding athletes.
Buckley, who has founded a company called Shoreline Publishing Group to produce books for reluctant readers, maintains that sports are far more than simple hobbies or ways to burn off excess energy.
Buckley, who has founded a company called Shoreline Publishing Group to produce books for reluctant readers, maintains that sports are far more than simple hobbies or ways to burn off excess energy.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 17, 2024
A great read, has a chapter for each of the first 16 perfect games. Starting from 1880 til 1999. Also has a chapter about the close to perfect games that just missed them by one out.
Highly recommended, it's well written and researched.
Highly recommended, it's well written and researched.
March 17, 2019
A perfect game is still the pinnacle of any pitcher. No baserunners period. Re-read this book (first time in the early 2000s), and I still learned much about some of the bygone players from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries mentioned in this book. Unfortunately, the book carries dated references and feels a bit stale as baseball progresses into almost 2020.
February 26, 2017
The sport of baseball is the only game in which a "perfect game" is part of the lexicon, and this book chronicles the first 17 such feats, from J. Lee Richmond to Randy "Big Unit" Johnson.
Author James Buckley Jr. weaves a well-constructed tale of this elite club, giving short biographies of each "perfectionist" and unearthing unique, game-day information that even I (a huge fan/reader of baseball history) had not been privy to previous. Even the stories dating back nearly (or over) 100 years still come off as fresh and interesting, as it is fascinating to see how much the game has changed over the years.
The best aspect of this book, though, is the fresh writing style from Buckley. Not stuffy or over-anxious, he just comes off as a huge baseball fan who is honored to even have the chance to write about such a "sacred" topic. Each tale is just as interesting as the rest, whether dealing with the old-timers, "no-namers", legends, or contemporaries.
Thus, this book would be a welcome addition to your baseball library due to its unique topic, entertaining writing, and historical information you won't be able to find anywhere else.
Author James Buckley Jr. weaves a well-constructed tale of this elite club, giving short biographies of each "perfectionist" and unearthing unique, game-day information that even I (a huge fan/reader of baseball history) had not been privy to previous. Even the stories dating back nearly (or over) 100 years still come off as fresh and interesting, as it is fascinating to see how much the game has changed over the years.
The best aspect of this book, though, is the fresh writing style from Buckley. Not stuffy or over-anxious, he just comes off as a huge baseball fan who is honored to even have the chance to write about such a "sacred" topic. Each tale is just as interesting as the rest, whether dealing with the old-timers, "no-namers", legends, or contemporaries.
Thus, this book would be a welcome addition to your baseball library due to its unique topic, entertaining writing, and historical information you won't be able to find anywhere else.
February 10, 2008
It has been a long, long time since I have been so dragged down and frustrated by a book. It sounded like such a good idea! Not to get all wound up about baseball, but - a perfect game! The idea that a man, a team, can for one day, for nine innings, be perfect. It’s a glorious name for an inspiring achievement, and my little ditty right here was far more enjoyable than the book.
I was bored! Some of the most tense and riveting games in the history of the sport, and Buckley bores me. He tried too hard to be funny. He repeated himself - I lost count of the number of times he used the phrase "caught lightning in a bottle". He insisted on finding those stupid little connections between the various games that as a history-loving, record-appreciating, silly-little-fact-adoring baseball fan I am usually all over, but he just annoyed me with them. (David Cone pitched a perfect game with 88 pitches on the day that the Yankees celebrated Don Larson’s perfect game, which was caught by Yogi Berra, who wore number 8! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!? Shut up, Mr. Buckley.)
Also, and this is what really annoys me, because if you can figure out all these little facts and constantly throw them at me (I don’t need to be reminded again how many perfect games were interrupted by a rain delay. You already told me four times.), you could at least get them right. So, when you gleefully tell me that David Wells’ May 18th perfect game means that May ties June and July for months with the most perfect games – three each! – you could at least double check the dates of the 16 games, and maybe you’d notice that there were also three in September. I managed to figure it out, and you should probably be more familiar with the subject, seeing as you literally wrote the book on the subject.
Mr. Buckley, I know I’m being mean, but I think the issue is that while you had a fascinating topic to work with, you’re not a good storyteller. And it didn’t help your case any when you name check Roger Angell, my favorite baseball writer, and a damn fine storyteller. It was a bad idea for you to leave yourself open for any comparisons there. However, I appreciate your recommendation, because I’m pretty sure you said he wrote about Cone’s perfecto in his Pitcher’s Story, so I am going to go read that. And try to forget your book.
I was bored! Some of the most tense and riveting games in the history of the sport, and Buckley bores me. He tried too hard to be funny. He repeated himself - I lost count of the number of times he used the phrase "caught lightning in a bottle". He insisted on finding those stupid little connections between the various games that as a history-loving, record-appreciating, silly-little-fact-adoring baseball fan I am usually all over, but he just annoyed me with them. (David Cone pitched a perfect game with 88 pitches on the day that the Yankees celebrated Don Larson’s perfect game, which was caught by Yogi Berra, who wore number 8! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!? Shut up, Mr. Buckley.)
Also, and this is what really annoys me, because if you can figure out all these little facts and constantly throw them at me (I don’t need to be reminded again how many perfect games were interrupted by a rain delay. You already told me four times.), you could at least get them right. So, when you gleefully tell me that David Wells’ May 18th perfect game means that May ties June and July for months with the most perfect games – three each! – you could at least double check the dates of the 16 games, and maybe you’d notice that there were also three in September. I managed to figure it out, and you should probably be more familiar with the subject, seeing as you literally wrote the book on the subject.
Mr. Buckley, I know I’m being mean, but I think the issue is that while you had a fascinating topic to work with, you’re not a good storyteller. And it didn’t help your case any when you name check Roger Angell, my favorite baseball writer, and a damn fine storyteller. It was a bad idea for you to leave yourself open for any comparisons there. However, I appreciate your recommendation, because I’m pretty sure you said he wrote about Cone’s perfecto in his Pitcher’s Story, so I am going to go read that. And try to forget your book.
January 21, 2016
This book is everything in intended to be, a simple narration of baseball's seventeen perfect games, plus an appendix that briefly comments on some near misses. A fun and quick read that does not pretend to offer deep analysis. But in some sense the lack of analysis is the entire point. Perfect games are so rare that it may be easiest to think of each one as a unique anomoly. There are however two generalizations to be made based on the author's reporting. First, perfect games tend to be close games, half were won by scores of 1 - 0 or 2 - 0. Plus two almost perfect games that were 0 -0 at the end of nine innings. Second the reports of outstanding team defense are exaggerated based the importance, after the fact, that is attributed to good, but not necessarily outstanding plays.
I especially like the appendix, regarding near-miss perfect games. I recall listening on the radio to Billy Pierce's one hitter in 1959. I was envious because my brother was at the ball park. It was all we talked about for two weeks.
Also in 1959, I recall listening to the Harvey Haddix game on my bed side radio. To my everlasting shame I fell asleep and missed one of the greatest moments in sports history!!
My one regret was that the appendix did not include Armando Galarraga's game June 2, 2010 (Perfection was published in 2005). In that game, on what would have been the 27th out, there was an obvious blown call by the first base umpire. Was that a perfect game or was it not? The author I believe would say not. But the dispute about the perfection or near perfection of that game is entertainingly used as a plot device in a novel by Tracy Manaster "You could be home by now." "You could be home by now" is not about baseball, but an important episode in the book turns on the issue of whether Galarraga's game was perfect or not.
I especially like the appendix, regarding near-miss perfect games. I recall listening on the radio to Billy Pierce's one hitter in 1959. I was envious because my brother was at the ball park. It was all we talked about for two weeks.
Also in 1959, I recall listening to the Harvey Haddix game on my bed side radio. To my everlasting shame I fell asleep and missed one of the greatest moments in sports history!!
My one regret was that the appendix did not include Armando Galarraga's game June 2, 2010 (Perfection was published in 2005). In that game, on what would have been the 27th out, there was an obvious blown call by the first base umpire. Was that a perfect game or was it not? The author I believe would say not. But the dispute about the perfection or near perfection of that game is entertainingly used as a plot device in a novel by Tracy Manaster "You could be home by now." "You could be home by now" is not about baseball, but an important episode in the book turns on the issue of whether Galarraga's game was perfect or not.
January 6, 2008
This was a pretty cool way to get myself ready for baseball season. You already know how excited I was to get the games going. Reading this only got me more excited about it. “Perfect” is a collection of stories about each of the 17 perfect games in Major League Baseball’s history from the first one by J. Lee Richmond of Providence (the team didn’t even have a name yet) tore through the Cleveland Forest Cities in 1880 to the better known Randy Johnson then of the Arizona Diamondbacks moving down the Atlanta Braves in 2004. Each game account has some cool little tidbits of information thrown in that you would never have otherwise known. All the little things that link some of the games together. As you read each one you realize just how special a feat throwing a perfect game is. You come to see just how many different things have to align themselves perfectly for a perfect game to happen. The author James Buckley Jr. has an obvious love for the game of baseball that comes through his words as he describes each perfect game. You can sense how much he wishes he could have been in the stands for each of these games. This is a really fun read for any fan that really appreciates baseball and doesn’t stop being a fan once his team isn’t mentioned.
May 6, 2015
Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Sixteen Perfect Games by James Buckley Jr. is a brilliant chronological listing of every perfect game from the dawn of baseball to just before the turn of the 21st century. Since the book was published there have been four more perfectos. Every one of the first sixteen is retold in compelling fashion. The reader really gets to appreciate that the perfect game isn’t simply about one man’s skill but about a moment in time that involves all 9 people on the field and one that rarely, RARELY ever happens. Must read for a baseball fan.
September 11, 2012
I read this book over the Christmas holidays. Although not up to date with the current number of perfect games, the read was inspiring. To think of all the possibilities associated with executing baseball's perfect game it simply boggles the mind. Not only does the pitcher need to be at his best, but also his teammates need to be flawless. A great read and the author did a masterful job in his delivery. I cannot see how this book could have been any better. It is perfect.
October 23, 2010
I really enjoyed this book. It provided quality information about some of my favorite pitchers, coupled with an interesting writing style. I recommend this book to all who enjoy a good story and like baseball.
May 31, 2013
Too bad there were 7 more perfect games pitched since this book came out. It was interesting reading, went pretty quick. Maybe, if this book had been published later to include the more recent perfect games, it would have been more interesting. Worth the read, though.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews