Perfect Game - Cy Young

 Denton True Young. Better known as Cy. You might've heard of him. There's only an award named after him for being the best pitcher in your league every year. Young built himself quite the Hall of Fame resume over his career, so it's natural to assume a perfect game would land among his qualifications.

On May 5, 1904, Young hurled the 3rd ever perfect game. On that day, Young shut down the Philadelphia Athletics, and his Boston Americans took a 3-0 victory at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. The stadium not only holds the distinction of hosting the first ever American League and modern era perfect game, bit it was also host to the first ever World Series game a season prior between the Americans and the Pittsburg Pirates. The game had already drawn quite a crowd to witness the pitching rivalry of Young and Rube Waddell, the latter of which had been goading Young in the press before the game.

1904 was just another year for the 511 career game winner. a 26-16 record with a league leading 10 shutouts. 26 wins is impressive, but it wasn't enough to lead the league as his 3 year streak was broken (Young tied for 2nd while Jack Chesbro's all time single season record of 41 paced the league). The perfect game extended a couple of legendary streaks for Young, a hitless streak that eventually hit 25 1/3 innings, a record that still stands today...also a streak of 45 scoreless innings, a record that stood until Orel Hershiser broke it.

Young would help lead the way for Boston to defend it's AL pennant, making Young the first ever perfect game pitcher to also take home the league flag...but not the first to pitch in the World Series. 1904 had no series. The New York Giants called the whole thing off in advance out of fear that the New York Highlanders would be their opponent.

A future Hall of Famer in his own right, Waddell was no slouch, and got the better of Young in his fair share of the rivalry matchups. Prior to the perfect game, Rube hurled a 1 hitter against Boston, prompting his boasting. As memorable as the perfect game was, arguably the greatest game between these two rivals happened on July 4, 1905 where both men pitched 20 innings in a 4-2 win for Waddell and the Athletics. That season saw Rube winning his own 1st pennant, as well as the pitching triple crown.