OTHER SIDE of the COIN: What was the best pitched game you ever saw?

[bwbc917]

Sam McDowell is still etched in my mind. Not because of his pitching performance versus the Senators, but because Al Dark put him at 2B rather than face Frank Howard.
The reliever walked Howard and then faced the next batter who hit a grounder and Sam had to cover 2nd for the force out on Howard. Sam stumbled and went down on his knees at the bag. We were lucky he wasn't trampled by Howard.

[steve B]

Best I've seen in person were a couple of Pedros games that were in the 13-15 strikeouts range. I don't recall exactly which dates, but I did try to make my Fenway visits on days he was pitching.

Steve B

[MooseDog]

Can't remember the year, but it was a year or two after PacBell Park opened in SF. I'm an A's fan but I did go to a few Giants games each year.

Had a chance to see Greg Maddux pitch so I went. He was facing Livan Hernandez. Braves scored first and Maddux and Hernandez went pitch for pitch for eight innings both throwing strikes and wasting no time between pitches. Maddux made one bad pitch, Rich Aurelia nailed it for a two run homer in the 7th and the Giants won 2-1 with Robb Nen pitching a 1-2-3 ninth.

Time of the game 1 hour 46 minutes. I on the train and got home before 10:30 that night. Usually I'm lucky to make it back from a Giants game by midnight.

Having been a pitcher in my high school days this was very cool to see rather than the 14-12 four hour slugfests that were going on at the time.

[packs]

I was at David Cone's Perfect Game against the Expos.

[hoot-owl]

Living in Boston in the late 80's. Invited my future in-laws to a Red Sox vs. Royals double header. In the first game Clemens beat Saberhagen 3-1 striking out 16 Royals while walking only one (only run was unearned). Pure domination. Don't remember the second game.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Many games pitched by Pedro. When his changeup was on (most of the time) and whe as getting extra inches on the outside corner (sometimes), he was close to unhittable.

[Centauri]

There's been a couple of Pedro games mentioned, but for me it was against my Indians in the 1999 playoffs. Deciding game, in Cleveland, but Pedro was injured and did not start.

With the score 8-8, Pedro decided to give it a go. He proceeded to pitch 6 innings of no-hit ball. Completely shut down a very good group of hitters, in a hitters park, after they had been knocking the cover off the ball for the first few innings. Yes, the Red Sox won that game.

Pedro put up numbers like Kershaw, but did it at the height of the steroid era. I didn't see it, but he went 9 innings perfect in Montreal, but got nothing for it.

[tedzan]

October 8th, 1956..... I told my Mom that I didn't feel well (I really wanted to see a World Series game in its entirety)...... so, I played "hooky" and
switched the TV on at noon.

Yes, that was the day Don Larsen pitched his PERFECT game vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the 1st inning, Pee Wee Reese worked the count to 3-2.
This was the only at bat by any of the 27 Dodgers to face Larsen that day that went that deep into the count.

Larsen, modestly, said at the end of the game...."the Dodgers made it easy, I only threw 96 pitches".

The real moment of truth occurred in the 5th inning. Gil Hodges drives Larsen's pitch to deep Left-Center field. Mickey Mantle on the run, catches
the ball in front of the wall at the 457-foot mark.





Summer of 2007, I met Don Larsen in Cooperstown, he signed this photo, and we talked for about 1/2 an hour about this great game.
Don is a tremendous guy to talk with.


T-Rex TED
.

[slidekellyslide]

Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game on WGN....followed closely by The Rocket's 20K game against the Mariners on NESN. I have Clemens game taped on a VHS tape...NESN always reran the game later that night or early in the morning so I made sure to tape it.