Perfect games are hard by definition. Nine whole innings of perfection, no room for error. It's a taxing endeavor for a pitcher to complete. Just imagine how much harder it would be if his team couldn't score any run support and her had to go back out there and try for a 10th inning. Or 11. What about 12! That was just the assignment for Harvey Haddix on May 26, 1959. His Pittsburgh Pirates were going up against the 2-time defending NL champion Milwaukee Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium.
The Pirates of '59 were a pretty .500 team. Going into the game they were 20-20 and they'd end the season 78-76-1. Heck, Haddix himself would go 12-12 that season so it all seemed just. But there was nothing average about Harvey on this day. The Braves were helpless for 12 innings against Haddix who was throwing so effectively that Bill Mazeroski would comment that it was an incredibly easy day on defense.
There was a problem though. The Pirates couldn't score. Nothing. Nine innings ended and despite eight hits, they couldn't string any together to produce a run on the board. When the game ended, they had 12 but still a big goose egg under the R on the scoreboard.
After 12 futile innings at the plate, the Braves finally got something going in the bottom of the 13th. Don Hoak made a throwing error, thus ending the perfect game, but Haddix still had a no-hitter...until Joe Adcock took him deep with 2 outs for a walk off home run. The final score was 1-0 (more on that later). Just like that, after all the hard work and incredible pitching, Haddix had nothing but a standard loss. Arguable the greatest pitching performance in a loss, but still a loss.
Haddix brings a solid chart to go with that +3 control. Usually you only see 1-18 outs on a +1 or maybe +2 control pitchers, Haddix does that with 8 innings of use, which shows why doing 12 wasn't such a stretch.
Baseball always needs more big bodied hitters. Burgess brings that and the bragging rights that come with calling 12 innings of perfection. '59 was the first of 3 straight all star seasons for Smoky.
The Pirates had their chances in this game before the baseball gods decided that 13 innings of failure was too much. Way back in the 3rd inning, they had their best chance. They managed three singles, which you figure would mean at least one chance to send a runner for home plate. Blame Roman Mejias for why no runs scored. Mejias was on first base when Haddix himself managed an infield single, but Roman decided to try to go not just to second base, but to try to reach third base as well...on an infield single. What he and his C speed was thinking, I'll never know.
Don Hoak usually brings a solid +2 defense to the hot corner, but it was his throwing error in the 13th inning that ended the perfect game and allowed for the winning run to later score on the walk off "homer".
Almost lost in the craziness of Haddix's near-perfection is the fact that Burdette managed to keep up the entire game, tossing 13 shutout innings in the process. While his teammates were being sent down 1-2-3 over and over, Burdette was navigating around 12 hits to bend but never break to the Pirates.
Felix began the day on the bench, but as things happen in a 13 inning game, he found a way onto the field. He led off the bottom of the 13th with the grounder that Hoak threw wide, allowing Mantilla to reach on the error and later go on to score the winning run.
The hero of the day for Milwaukee was Joe Adcock. I couldn't imagine Haddix having much control left by the 13th, and with a 17+ homer chart, it isn't crazy to see why Adcock was able to send a pitch over the fence to end the game. However, because this day wasn't somehow uncommon enough, only Mantilla technically scored and Adock was only credited with one RBI and a walk off double...
Hank Aaron did a lot of incredible things in his career. But on this day, he was guilty of being a bit empty headed. Before Adcock batted, Mantilla was sacrificed to second base, then Aaron walked and was on first base. Unsure if Adcock's hit left the park or hit the fence for a standard hit, but seeing Mantilla score and end the game anyway, Aaron simply walked away after touching second base. With Aaron gone, Adcock "passed" him as he went around the bases. As a rule, you're out when you pass the runner ahead of you, and since Aaron left the field of play, he didn't score either. So instead of a 3-run homer, it was a 1 run double. Mantilla scored before the miscues happened, so the win was still safe.
