{"id":3561,"date":"2009-07-26T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-26T06:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2009-07-25T23:04:24","modified_gmt":"2009-07-25T22:04:24","slug":"weekly-hit-ground-ball-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=3561","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

History was made by Mark Buehrle on Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 The White Sox ace pitched only the 18th<\/sup> perfect game<\/a> in Major League history, mowing down twenty-seven Tampa Bay Rays hitters in order.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everyone who witnessed it will have their own story, most of which will begin with a slice of good fortune that made it possible. The 28,000\u00c2\u00a0present at\u00c2\u00a0U.S. Cellular Field in particular will always be thankful that they decided to go to the ballpark on that day.\u00c2\u00a0 For baseball fans in the UK, we were lucky that the game was being played during the daytime in Chicago, allowing us to follow it live during the British evening.<\/p>\n

So long as you knew what was going on.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I was busy earlier in the evening and got back home at quarter past eight, made myself a cup of tea and then turned on the computer to check my e-mails and look up the latest MLB news.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It’s a routine I’ve followed on a daily basis for several years, but in the last few months it’s been joined by the task of taking a look at my Twitter account as well.\u00c2\u00a0 It was there at 20.19 that I was alerted to the makings of an unmissable moment.\u00c2\u00a0 Noah Coslov from MLB.com (@mlbcoz<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0for those that want to follow him) passed on the news: “Mark Buehrle is perfect through 5”.\u00c2\u00a0 I quickly re-tweeted the message and excitedly logged on to MLB.com to listen to the game.\u00c2\u00a0 One hour later and I would have missed it.<\/p>\n

A pitcher will often try to play down<\/a> thoughts of a no-hitter, never mind a potential perfect game, but it starts to cross my mind as a fan when three innings have been completed and batters one through nine have all been retired in order.\u00c2\u00a0 Five completed innings is definitely enough time to convince yourself that something big is going to happen, yet the captivating drama of a perfect game comes from the fact that it is so fragile when in process.\u00c2\u00a0 The pitcher is walking a tightrope every time he lets the ball fly from his hand, a daring high-wire journey that everyone is led along as well. \u00c2\u00a0A three-ball count pitch just off the corner or a broken bat dribbler is all it takes for the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcperfecto’ to be ruined within a heartbeat.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

A reminder of this was provided last Sunday when the A’s young lefty Brett Anderson was perfect through six and two-thirds against the Angels.\u00c2\u00a0 Bobby Abreu hit a weak single that crushed the hopes of A’s fans, a feeling that was compounded by Oakland’s offense being unable to offer any run support on their way to a 1-0 extra-innings loss.<\/p>\n

Buehrle had the luxury of a Josh Fields grand slam in the second inning to work with and he also had the experience of his 2007 no-hitter against the Rangers to draw on.\u00c2\u00a0 In one of those crazy coincidences that baseball throws up every once in a while, Eric Cooper was the home plate umpire on that occasion and he was behind the plate again as Buehrle completed the no-hit, perfecto double.\u00c2\u00a0 Early run support and a lucky umpire on hand? Buehrle had it easy.<\/p>\n

Okay, maybe not.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t easy for the pitcher or for those of us following the action.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite having an MLB.TV subscription, my instinct was to follow the game via the home White Sox radio feed on GamedayAudio.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve written before about the way baseball and cricket perfectly suit the radio medium and somehow that seems even more the case during moments of tension and drama.<\/p>\n

It’s a great shame that the Ashes cricket series isn’t on free-to-air TV, for example, but being able to listen to Test Match Special is preferable in some ways.\u00c2\u00a0 There are times when you want to watch the footage (a great catch, a beautifully timed cover drive, Freddie Flintoff’s wicket-taking celebrations etc), yet the power of an audio-only account of the game is completely engrossing.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you have to involve yourself in the coverage, combining the commentary and crowd noise to picture the scene in your mind’s eye, the occasion consumes you all the more.<\/p>\n

As the bottom of the eighth inning mercifully came and went quickly, the commentator was moved to state “stay here folks”, as if anyone was going anywhere. I hadn’t dared move from my seat since the moment I tuned in.\u00c2\u00a0 The normal tension increased before the top of the ninth because the GamedayAudio feed muted the in-between-innings local adverts, leaving silence in its place.\u00c2\u00a0 Paranoia took hold as I feared my internet connection might have gone down and it felt like an eternity before the players came back out onto the field ready to get those final three outs.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s the moments of sound followed by suspense that I love most about radio commentary.\u00c2\u00a0 The lead-off hitter, Gabe Kapler, helped to produce one such classic example.\u00c2\u00a0 The cauldron of noise was shattered by the sound of bat on ball, followed by audible gasps and a holding of breath as I waited, waited, waited and then heard the crowd erupt again as Dewayne Wise made a spectacular catch at the wall to preserve the pursuit of perfection.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a magical moment, almost topping the final \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcroutine’ ground out by Jason Bartlett that ended the game and started mass celebrations from White Sox players, White Sox fans, and baseball fans around the world.<\/p>\n

The celebrations\u00c2\u00a0were a combination of\u00c2\u00a0great respect for a brilliant achievement and sheer joy at the fortune\u00c2\u00a0of experiencing it.\u00c2\u00a0An unremarkable evening here in England turned into an unforgettable one thanks to Mark Buehrle and the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll always be glad that I was able to listen to the perfect game as it happened.<\/p>\n

And that I checked my Twitter account at 20.19 that evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History was made by Mark Buehrle on Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 The White Sox ace pitched only the 18th perfect game in Major League history, mowing down twenty-seven Tampa Bay Rays hitters in order.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone who witnessed it will have their own story, most of which will begin with a slice of good fortune that made it possible. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}