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.

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Mark Buehrle Looking A Lot Like Tom Glavine

Also a lot like Johnny Padres and Frank Viola. This is via Baseball-Reference and does not include today's game:

Sim Player               From  To Yrs  W   L   WL%   ERA    G   GS  GF  CG SHO  SV   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO  ERA+
+---+--------------------+---------+--+---+---+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+
     Mark Buehrle        2000-2009 10 132  90  .595  3.78  312 287   6  23   7   0 1973.0 2043  928  829 226  451 1153 122
952  Johnny Podres       1953-1963 10 129  96  .573  3.66  336 286  22  72  22   5 1891.0 1876  853  770 193  627 1267 107
949  Frank Viola         1982-1990  9 137 110  .555  3.70  307 306   0  63  14   0 2107.7 2077  960  866 233  608 1469 112
945  Tom Glavine         1987-1996 10 139  92  .602  3.45  298 298   0  34  13   0 1956.3 1871  842  751 127  664 1212 115

(Side Note: That's right, Tom Glavine had ZERO relief appearances. He's the winningest pitcher ever without coming in from the bullpen, according to B-R's Play Index. #3 on that list and #1 active is Yankees ace CC Sabathia)

Rob Neyer mentions that he's been flying under the radar for a while despite being really good:

Buehrle's career ERA is roughly 23 percent better than the American League average during his 10 seasons. That's really, really good. That's better than Bob Feller, Eddie Plank, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, and various other Hall of Famers. It's better than CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Jake Peavy, Andy Pettitte, and John Lackey.

But would Joe Fan or Rob Blogger put Buehrle on the same level with those stars?

Probably not, because Buehrle just hasn't done the sorts of things that get one mentioned among such notables. He has never won 20 games, and has won more than 16 games just once. He has been mentioned in the Cy Young results just once (finishing a distant fifth in 2005). With two notable exceptions -- first the no-hitter, and now this -- he's never been particularly overpowering.

Well here is "Rob Blogger" giving Buehrle his due (and not just for that Perfect Game today). In his quiet excellence and lack of a 20-win season, Buehrle reminds me a lot of the Mike Mussina. Quiet, never the best, but quietly puts up very good numbers.

Maybe now after the perfect game, Buehrle will finally get his due. Or, if the White Sox fall out of the race, maybe they will have a big chip to move to a team looking for a very good and very underrated starting pitcher.

A Perfect Game Postscript: Wise, Obama, and a Question

The ESPN crew breaking down the perfect game including the DeWayne Wise highlight about 1:28 in:



That has to be one of the best catches ever, especially considering the circumstances. Mark Buehrle said he owes DeWayne Wise more than a steak sandwich for that one. I would agree. Maybe a new watch.

And after he pitched a perfect game, he got a call from the White Sox most famous fan, Barack Obama:



Also, a question: a perfect game is 27 up, 27 down, no hits, walks, hit batters, or errors. But let's say the last batter pops one up but the catcher drops it in foul territory. They give him an error. But the pitcher gets the guy out on the next pitch. Is it a perfect game? I think it should be, but technically, because of the error is it one? If anyone can answer that correctly, they get big kudos, because no one has ever been able to answer that for me.