This has to be the greatest Major League Baseball event I have ever seen in person. Thirty years ago today, Detroit Tiger pitcher Milt Wilcox had a perfect game going into the 9th inning against my Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park.
And I was there.
I have never forgotten that game, but had forgotten the actual date, but knew it was early in the 1983 baseball season. Last night, while looking through the new book I bought at Five Below in McHenry, Illinois, "White Sox Journal" by John Snyder, a must-have for Sox fans, I happened upon the 1983 season and figured I'd see if they had the date for this near-perfect game.
The book did, and it was today.
Milt Wilcox had a perfect game going into the ninth inning and a 6-run lead. I had long since quit pulling for my Sox and was 100% behind Wilcox. One out, two outs and Sox manager Tony LaRussa puts in Jerry Hairston to pinch hit. He was our best pinch-hitter. And that is just what he did. Clean single. The next player flied out and the Sox got to lose a 6-0 game.
I did not get to see my perfect game. I didn't even get to see a no-hitter. All I got was a one-hitter. Not bad, but I could have had a perfect game.
When Hairston got the single, two people behind me started cheering. That is the nearest I ever came to getting into a fight at the old ballpark.
Idiots. --RoadDog
Being an account of some things I'm interested in, what I'm doing, and reflections on my past, especially music.
Listen to this man. Seven years of college, you know. Trying to reason with 2020 and, now, 2022.
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