posted on May, 20 2004 @ 07:53 PM
I was trying to put Randy Johnson's perfect game in perspective when I remembered a quote from Jerry Seinfeld:
"You can't over dry. The same reason you can't over wet. See once something is wet, it's wet. Same thing with death. Like once you die, you're dead,
right?
Let's say you drop dead and I shoot you. You're not going to die again, because you're already dead. You can't over die. You can't over dry."
So is the perfect game like wetness? If you're perfect, are you just perfect, or are there degrees of perfection? Can you be over perfect? Can you
be under perfect? Finally, the answer hit me like a 98 mile-an-hour fastball: Randy Johnson had pitched an under perfect game.
That's right, the Big Unit's perfect game against Atlanta was below par. Johnson recorded twenty-seven outs in a row on Tuesday night, but two of
those outs came against pitcher Mike Hampton. Hampton might be the most competent hitting pitcher in the game today, but he's no pro at the plate.
In 1998, David Wells achieved legitimate perfection against the Twins by retiring 27 consecutive hitters. Point being, either AL perfection is over
perfect and NL perfection is perfect, or AL perfection is perfect and NL perfection is under perfect. Take your pick.
[Edited on 04/10/03 by deanchristopher]