FIRST PERFECT GAME

Image credit: WikiCommons

On June 12, 1880, Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs twirled baseball's first-ever perfect game—allowing no hits, walks or hit batsmen to give the Ruby Legs a 1-0 win over the Cleveland Blues. Let's look back at some of this now-legendary game.

The Worcester Evening Gazette wrote it was "a wonderful shut out" and "the best baseball game on record" but the first use of the term "perfect game" did not appear until a 1909 Washington Post article.

 Richmond was a star baseball and football player at Brown University. In fact, he started his pro career while still captaining Brown's team. In his first ever pro start—an exhibition game for which he was paid $10 on June 2, 1879—Richmond threw a no-hitter. He would throw a second no-hitter that same season for Worcester, all while still competing on the collegiate level.

The perfect game came in the midst of a 42-inning scoreless streak pitched by Richmond. That's almost 5 complete games.

Five days after Richmond made baseball history, John Ward tossed the second perfect game ever. But this hardly became the trend. Although the first two perfect games were thrown within a week of one another, the third perfect game in the National League—then the sole Major League—wouldn't occur for another 84 years.