April 30, 1922: White Sox pitcher hurls first "perfect" game

On this date eighty-five years ago, Charley Robertson of the Chicago White Sox threw major league baseball's first "perfect" game. Well, not exactly, other perfect games had been hurled in the big leagues prior to 1922, but Robertson's unlikely gem was the first one to be called a perfect game, according to the book Unhittable,it was a Chicago sportswriter who coined the term, writing that the...

White Sox, according to captain Eddie Collins, had not let the thought of a no hitter, to say nothing of a perfect game, dawn on them until just three men stood between Robertson and the rarest of baseball glory.

Robertson was making just his third major league start; he was up against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers--the ornery one was managing the team then. Cobb protested the game, claiming Robertson was throwing spitballs, which had been banned the season before.

It's a common saying that "any pitcher can throw a no-hitter," just a little skill and a lot of luck are needed. For proof of that, here is one for you Metro East folks, there is Bobo Holliman of the St. Louis Browns, who in 1953 threw a no-hitter in his first major league start, and won just two more games in his very brief major league career.

Only the greatest pitchers, so it's believed, have the skill to throw a "perfecto."

But to counter that mantra, there is Charley Robertson.

Robertson had a much longer career than Holliman, but his career record ended up being just 49-80, the worst of any pitcher who threw a perfect game.

There would not be another perfect game thrown in the majors until the New York Yankees' Don Larsen performed the feat in the 1956 World Series. The next regular season perfect game would have to wait until 1964, when current US Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) tossed one for the Philadelphia Phillies.

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