Perfect Game - Charile Robertson
Baseball history contains some perfect games pitched by some pretty incredible individuals. And then there are some far less accomplished men who have retired 27 straight men in a game. Charlie Robertson ranks as one of those lesser known men.
On April 30, 1922, Robertson was given the ball in his fourth ever start in the big leagues, and took to the hill against the Tigers in Detroit. The White Sox rookie had the highlight of his life that afternoon as he baffled the Tigers hitters, so much so that manager Ty Cobb, ever the gracious loser, was constantly crying that Charlie was cheating. It was the first true perfect game pitched by someone on the road.
Robertson's season was pretty pedestrian after that, going 14-15. 1922 turned out to be his best year, as he would never get that close to a winning record again, going 49-80 for his career. In the Michael Coffey book "27 Men Out" he was referred to as "Hands down, Robertson is the least-accomplished pitcher to have thrown the most accomplished of games."
Robertson's accomplishment was pretty lonely in history. It had been about 14 years since the last perfect game, and it will be an insane 34 years before the next one, both the longest gaps between perfect games in history. So long that when Don Larsen pitched his perfecto in 1956, he didn't even know "perfect games" were a thing and just thought he pitched a really neat no-hitter.
