After 50 years of APBA.. My First Perfect Game!
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Have been rolling APBA since I was a 14-year-old in the spring of 1974, so I am officially an oldtimer. But in 50+ years of playing a few thousand times, I had never seen a perfect game…
UNTIL NOW!! 👍🏼🎉⚾️🎲💥🤣
Fergie Jenkins (B-XZ) just perfecto’d the 1942 Cardinals in a GTOP Tournament I’m currently playing on GO. He retired 27 straight as his ‘69 Cubs blanked St. Louis 5-0.
Chicago had taken an early 2-0 lead on Billy Williams’ two-run homer in the top of the third. An inning later, Paul Popovich scored on a Max Lanier wild pitch. Don Young, who had subbed for an injured Ron Santo in the fifth inning, added another two-run shot in the seventh.
I had taken perfect games into a ninth inning before. However, they had always been broken up. But this time, with my 16-year-old baseball-fan son there to witness it, the final inning was a thrilling 3-up, 3-down. Jenkins had been upgraded to an ‘A’ by this point. Pinch-hitter Harry Walker rolled a 43-29 for the final out. It was the Cards’ eleventh strikeout of the game.
What makes this especially cool is that I actually know Fergie personally. After his MLB career ended, we played together in the mid-80’s on a barnstorming charity slo-pitch team. And five years ago, I retired to his hometown in Chatham, Ontario 🇨🇦, an hour east of Detroit.
Pretty cool experience to say the least. It’s true when they say your hands actually tremble in the ninth inning, when a perfect game is on the line.
Hopefully, it’s not 50 more years before I see another one… 😉🤣