(Not) Perfect Game - Hooks Wiltse

 There are rules for pitching a perfect game, and they're very strict. No one can reach first base for any reason. Obviously this means no hits or walks allowed, but it also applies to everyone else on the field doing their jobs too. No errors or catchers interference. A pitcher can do everything right, but a lapse in concentration by one of his teammates can cost him perfection or a no-hitter. But there's also the umpires. David Cone with the Mets once had a no-hitter going deep into a game when the umpire blew a call and a hit was recorded. Cone was livid, and held the grudge for a long time, but there was nothing he could do about it. An entire team can be perfect, but an umpires call can still be costly.

One such situation takes us to Saturday, July 4, 1908. All across baseball, scheduled double headers are celebrating the country's birthday. Hooks Wiltse of the New York Giants takes the mound for game one against the Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds. What followed was one heck of a pitchers duel.

Wiltse and Philly starter George McQuillian would counter each other inning after inning with zeros on the scoreboard. Wiltse was masterful through the game, pitching a perfect game through 8 innings, but his team was failing to muster even one run to support him. 

Wiltse got the first two guys out in the top of the 9th, 26 in a row now, as opposing pitcher McQuillian stepped in to hit. This may seem insane, but we're talking dead ball era baseball and starting pitchers did NOT want to leave a game, especially in a 0-0 game, so McQuillian hit for himself in the 9th inning. On the 2-2 pitch, Wiltse hit McQuillian, and just like that, the perfect game was over.

The problem, however, was that 2-2 pitch should never have happened. Umpire Cy Rigler admitted that the previous 1-2 pitched should have been called strike 3. Instead he called ball 2 and the following pitch got away from Wiltse. Hooks would get out of the inning without giving up a hit, however, and even pitched the 10th inning with the no-hitter intact. The Giants would finally win it 1-0 in the bottom of the 10th and Hooks had to "settle" for a 10 inning no-hitter, the first of it's kind.

A solid card, Hooks enjoyed a career high with 23 wins in 330 inning in 1908. Today, those numbers would be elite, in 1908, they were good for 4th and 8th place in the league!

Roger Bresnahan, the catcher who almost caught perfection. He got over it and went on to enjoy a Hall of Fame career...

The game very well may have gone into the 11th and beyond if someone didn't finally end this thing, and that's where Al Bridwell came in to finally wrap the game up by driving in the lone run.

McQuillian did everything he could that day, but you can only do so much against perfection. His offense did him no favors as he had to become the only opposing pitcher in history to take matters into his own hand to break up a perfect game in the 9th. His card is even more stingy than Wiltse's, which shows you just how he was able to match goose eggs on the scoreboard that day. His 1908 was also solid, with 23 of his own wins and 359.2 innings (only good for 2nd in the NL. Christy Mathewson paced the league with 37 wins and 390.2 innings that season!)