Linking All of Baseball's Perfect Games

Yesterday Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in baseball history as the Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Rays. I was wondering if you could connect all 19 perfect games through common teammates. With the help of Baseball-Reference's Oracle, here's how they connect (with the dates of their perfect games in parentheses).

Lee Richmond (June 12, 1880) played with Sadie Houck on the 1879 Boston Red Caps. Houck played with John Montgomery "Monte" Ward (June 17, 1880) on the 1880 Providence Grays. Ward played with Gus Weyhing on the 1890 Brooklyn Ward's Wonders. Weyhing played with Cy Young (May 5, 1904) on the 1900 St. Louis Cardinals. Young played with Addie Joss (October 2, 1908) on the 1909 Cleveland Naps. Joss played with "Shoeless" Joe Jackson on the 1910 Cleveland Naps. Jackson played with Charlie Robertson (April 30, 1922) on the 1919 Chicago White Sox. Roberston played with Ted Lyons on the 1924 Chicago White Sox and Lyons played with Bob Kennedy on the 1939 Chicago White Sox. Kennedy played with Don Larsen (October 8, 1956) on the 1954 Baltimore Orioles. Larsen played with Harvey Kuenn on the 1962 San Francisco Giants. Kuenn played with Jim Bunning (June 21, 1964) on the 1958 Detroit Tigers. Bunning played with Maury Wills on the 1968 Pittsburgh Pirates. Wills played with Sandy Koufax (September 9, 1965) on the 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers. Koufax played with Tommy Davis on the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers. Davis played with Jim "Catfish" Hunter (May 8, 1968) on the 1970 Oakland Athletics. Hunter played with Dock Ellis on the 1977 New York Yankees. Ellis played with Len Barker (May 15, 1981) on the 1977 Texas Rangers. Barker played with Neal Heaton on the 1982 Cleveland Indians. Heaton played with Mike Witt (September 30, 1984) on the 1993 New York Yankees. Witt played with Wally Joyner on the 1988 California Angels. Joyner played with Tom Browning (September 16, 1988) on the 1995 Kansas City Royals. Browning played with Dann Bilardello on the 1985 Cincinnati Reds. Bilardello played with Dennis Martinez (July 28, 1991) on the 1986 Montreal Expos. Martinez played with Jeff Russell on the 1994 Cleveland Indians. Russell played with Kenny Rogers (July 28, 1994) on the 1992 Texas Rangers. Rogers played with David Wells (May 17, 1998) and David Cone (July 18, 1999) on the 1997 New York Yankees. Cone played with Mark Whiten on the 1997 New York Yankees. Whiten played with Randy Johnson (May 18, 2004) on the 1996 Seattle Mariners. Johnson played with Octavio Dotel on the 2006 New York Yankees. Dotel played with Mark Buehrle (July 23, 2009) on the 2008 Chicago White Sox. Buehrle played with Mark Kotsay on the 2009 Chicago White Sox. Kotsay played with Dallas Braden (May 9, 2010) on the 2007 Oakland Athletics.

So there you go. If you want to connect the first to the last:: Lee Richmond played with Tony Mullane...who played with Bobby Wallace...who played with Charlie Grimm...who played with Phil Cavarretta...who played with Minnie Minoso...who played with Harold Baines...who played with Keith Foulke...who played with Dallas Braden. I'm pretty confident that no one in between won $1 million for pitching that perfect game.

And if you want to connect Dallas Braden and his "buddy" Alex Rodriguez (besides the mound that A-Rod ran across or Bradenia): both played with Justin Duchscherer, Alan Embree, Chad Gaudin, Colby Lewis, Dan Giese, Brett Tomko, Edwar Ramirez, Erasmo Ramirez, Esteban Loaiza, Kevin Thompson, Nick Swisher, and Jason Giambi. No connection has been found between A-Rod and Dallas Braden's grandmother.

The more you know...

Pictures from timelines and The New York Times, respectively