The next 1971 "Baseball's Greatest Moments" card added to my custom "extended set" is a card celebrating Hall of Famer Jim "Catfish" Hunter and his 1968 perfect game:
On May 8th of that
year, one year and one day before I was born FYI, Oakland A's starter
Jim Hunter took the mound against the heavy-hitting Minnesota Twins, a
line-up that featured THREE future Hall of Famers in a row in Rod Carew,
Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva.
It was only the 25th game
for the Oakland franchise after moving there from Kansas City, and the
scant 6,300 fans were treated to history, as Hunter ended up tossing the
ninth perfect game at the time in MLB history, beating the Twins 4-0 at
Oakland-Alameda County Stadium.
Hunter struck out eleven
batters, including the last two of the game, with only two batters even
reaching a three-ball count: Tony Oliva in the second inning and the
final hitter of the game, pinch-hitter Rich Reese, who actually
fouled-off five straight 3-2 pitches before whiffing.
It was
actually the first regular season perfect game in the American League
since 1922, when Chicago White Sox pitcher Charlie Robertson
accomplished the feat, and first no-hitter in the Athletics franchise
since the Philadelphia days, when Bill McCaha threw a no-no in 1947.
Incredibly,
what is often forgotten is that the star HITTER of the game was Hunter
himself, as he went 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs batted in!
Just amazing!
The
game took a nice 2:28 minutes to complete, and really introduced the
budding ace to the rest of the baseball world, as he would become a
perennial 20-game winner, 1974 Cy Young recipient, and five-time
champion before retiring in 1979.
