Cy Young’s Perfect Game

In 1998, the Boston’s Globe’s Bob Ryan took a look back at Cy Young’s perfect game in 1904:
“On Thursday, May 5, 1904, the prospect of a classic pitcher’s duel between Boston’s already legendary Cy Young and Philadelphia ace Rube Waddell – a man who could have given eccentricity lessons to Dennis Rodman – lured 10,267 baseball fans to the Huntington Avenue grounds.”

The Globe’s original account said Patsy Dougherty, Chick Stahl, and Freddy Parent all made some nice plays to protect Young’s perfect game. Waddell, the game’s last batter, “drove a long fly to Stahl, and, waiting for the catch, the crowd held back. The ball was held by the Boston fielder, and the crowd let loose.

Ten thousand voices, keyed to the highest pitch, went off as if by electric shock as the last man went out on a fly to Chick Stahl, clinching the greatest game ever pitched by mortal man.

It was a game that all who attended will long remember and hand down the story of to generations to come; for record breakers come now seldom and are never advertised ahead.”

Cy Young said it like this: “Things broke beautifully for me. My curves broke well, and my speed seemed a little faster than usual. (Rube, the opposing pitcher) Waddell is eccentric and erratic. I feared him more than any other. When he hit that ball to center, I sighed. As it dropped into (Chick) Stahl’s glove, I felt like a colt, and when I gained possession of that ball, I was overjoyed.”

The nine perfect innings were part of a hitless innings streak (24 straight and still a record) and a scoreless innings streak (45 straight).