http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/s.../19perfect.html

May 19, 2004
DIAMONDBACKS 2, BRAVES 0
Johnson Tosses Perfect Game Against Braves
By MURRAY CHASS

andy Johnson, a five-time winner of the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in his league, reached the .500 mark with his won-lost record last night, choosing a spectacular way to do it: he pitched a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves.

Johnson, at 40, the oldest pitcher to pitch a perfect game, faced 27 batters at Atlanta's Turner Field and retired all 27. No runs in Arizona's 2-0 victory, no hits, no walks, no base runners at all. "The no-hitter I threw with Seattle in 1990," he said at a news conference afterward, "I was far from perfect. I think I walked seven batters. Fourteen years later, I've come a long way."

Johnson, a left-hander, tossed the 17th perfect game in baseball history and became only the fifth pitcher to throw no-hitters in both the American League and the National League, following Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan and Hideo Nomo.

Young's second of three no-hitters, which he pitched in 1904, was a perfect game, as was Bunning's second, against the Mets in 1964. But none of Ryan's record seven no-hitters were perfect nor were either of Nomo's.

Dennis Martinez pitched the last perfect game in the National League, for Montreal against Los Angeles in 1991.

Since then, the American League has had three perfect games, thrown by Kenny Rogers, for Texas in 1994; David Wells, for the Yankees in 1998; and David Cone, for the Yankees in 1999.

"The biggest and most important thing was winning the ballgame," said Johnson, who improved his season record to four victories and four defeats. "If I had lost it, I would have been upset, but the bottom line is I wanted to win the ball game."

The closest the Braves came to a hit or a base runner was with their first batter. Jesse Garcia, playing shortstop for the injured Rafael Furcal, bunted the ball hard toward first base. Shea Hillenbrand fielded it, raced to the base and nabbed Garcia just before his headfirst slide.

Johnson, the National League's strikeout leader, struck out 13 and had only three balls on one batter. Johnny Estrada, the Braves' catcher, fouled off three 3-2 pitches in the second inning before striking out.

The Braves, who struck out 18 times in their previous game but had not been no-hit since Ken Forsch of Houston did so in 1979, hit a few fly balls deep, but none of them came close to being a hit.

Facing the last three batters in the Atlanta lineup in the ninth inning, Johnson induced Mark DeRosa to ground out to second base, threw a third strike past Nick Green and got Eddie Perez, batting for Mike Hampton, the Braves' starting pitcher, to swing and miss for strike three.

As soon as he saw Perez miss the pitch, Johnson thrust his glove hand into the air. Robby Hammock, a rookie catcher, raced to the mound and embraced Johnson, then the Diamondbacks raced out of the dugout and mobbed him.

"With the humidity you get loose pretty quick," Johnson said. "I felt my velocity got better as the game progressed. My slider was the best it's ever been velocity wise. I threw a few split fingers, not many. The job Robby did back there was amazing. I shook him off two or three times. That was in the eighth and ninth. It's nice when you're on the same page with your catcher."

Johnson added that Hammock "was jumping up and down; you could sense he was pretty excited.''

"I'm happy for him as well," Johnson added.

The 6-foot-10 Johnson, in his early years, was a hard thrower who had control problems. For many seasons now, though, he has been a genuine pitcher in all phases of the art. He was the most dominant pitcher in the National League for four successive seasons, winning the Cy Young award in 1999 and the three years after that. Only Roger Clemens, with six A.L. awards, has won the Cy Young more times than Johnson, who won the A.L. award with Seattle in 1995.

Although Johnson went into the game with a losing record, he had a 2.83 earned run average, indicating the troubles the Diamondbacks have had this season.

"Anyone is capable of doing anything on a given day," said Johnson, who has done more than most pitchers in his 16 major league seasons. "It didn't faze me. The bottom line is we needed to win the ball game."

Asked when he realized he was working on a perfect game, he said: "Trying to get caught up in that, you start thinking of things like that, you lose your focus. On days when I pitch, I'm very focused. It's me and the catcher and I know what I want to do. This was special."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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Toooo beeee geeeeeiiiisha...u mus hav abirity...stop men ded in twak...

i'm really glad for him. he;s been one of the most dominating pitchers for the past decade and more. ever since i really started paying attention to baseball in the early 90's. he's awesome. glad it was him and not another mediocre pitcher. seems it's always the mediocre ones. look at the list:

Randy Johnson, Arizona at Atlanta (NL), 2-0, May 18, 2004

David Cone, New York (AL) vs. Montreal, 6-0, July 18, 1999

David Wells, New York (AL) vs. Minnesota, 4-0, May 17, 1998

Kenny Rogers, Texas vs. California (AL), 4-0, July 28, 1994

Dennis Martinez, Montreal at Los Angeles (NL), 2-0, July 28, 1991

Tom Browning, Cincinnati vs. Los Angeles (NL), 1-0, Sept. 16, 1988

Mike Witt, California at Texas (AL), 1-0, Sept. 30, 1984

Len Barker, Cleveland vs. Toronto (AL), 3-0, May 15, 1981

Catfish Hunter, Oakland vs. Minnesota (AL), 4-0, May 8, 1968

Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles vs. Chicago (NL), 1-0, Sept. 9, 1965

Jim Bunning, Philadelphia at New York (NL), 6-0, June 21, 1964

x-Don Larsen, New York (AL) vs. Brooklyn (NL), 2-0, Oct. 8, 1956

Charles Robertson, Chicago at Detroit (AL), 2-0, April 30, 1922

Addie Joss, Cleveland vs. Chicago (AL), 1-0, Oct. 2, 1908

Cy Young, Boston vs. Philadelphia (AL), 3-0, May 5, 1904



really only young, koufax, hunter and johnson were AMAZING pitchers... strange isnt it? although pedro had one but blew it in the 10th, so he did have 9 perfect innings.

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*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

cant win 'em all in the ninth. but after seeing kaz bat from the right, i think he should ditch switch hitting for a while and see how batting strictly from the right side works out. he has a much smoother swing from the right side it seems.

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*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

i dont think the mets will ever have a no hitter, let alone a perfect game. glavine was insane today. if there was ever a time where glavine the met looked like glavine the brave, this was it. amazing performance. i wonder if that ball 4 was called a strike 3 how the game would've turned out... we'll never know, but nonetheless, it was a dope game. and... the mets are at .500. and jeter is still horrible. despite my hatred, i'm starting to feel bad. he has to go on a HOTTTTTTTTTTTTER THAN HOT streak to get back to his career .300 avg.

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*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

go expos....

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You've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable... known someone that could level you with her eyes... feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you.

Skylar: Men are shameless. If your not thinking with your weiner, you're acting directly on it's behalf.
Will: You bet and on behalf of my weiner, can I get like an advanced payment?
Skylar: No.


GOOD WILL HUNTING ownz u!

quote:

Originally posted by Anno Domino go expos....

soon to be D.C. Expos

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*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

for the mets fans... this is what jose reyes looked like in spring training:



and this is what jose reyes looked like yesterday:



check his forearms and biceps.. he's gotten so much bigger. i tried to find a picture form last year, but came up empty. i'm sure you all remembered what he looked like though. TINY...

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*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

wtf happened to his arms? he should be strengthening his LEGS and related muscles (abs, etc). he was really skinny last year. bleh at working nothing but upper body. just take the example of all the sluggers who have their hammies (chipper jones), quads (cliff floyd), knees (jason giambi), and ankles (knees) hurt.

quote:

Originally posted by trunks1022 wtf happened to his arms? he should be strengthening his LEGS and related muscles (abs, etc). he was really skinny last year. bleh at working nothing but upper body. just take the example of all the sluggers who have their hammies (chipper jones), quads (cliff floyd), knees (jason giambi), and ankles (knees) hurt.

according to everything i've read, he has NO fat in his legs. that is one of the main reason his leg always gets hurt. i dont know if you've been reading all of the articles, but the mets hired this conditioning guru. he's worked a lot with reyes and has actually changed the way he runs. a lot of people have said the way he runs causes too much stress to be put on the hamstring. well, anyway, he should be back by friday when we go to florida.

___________________
*can't imagine it feelin' much better...
i wish it would just last forever.
and so, to feel like that?
i'd pay any price just to get that back.*

phillies 3-4-5 hitters tonight:
1-10 with 5 k's. the met killer burrell got owned by Trachsel striking him out 3 times woot woot! now there one game over .500

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BAHAHAHAAHAHHA!!!!!!! Focking Pirates kicked some ass last night.......Rob Mackowiak smacked that friggin game winning grand slam in the first game and Craig Wilson hit the game winning home run in extra innings to win the second game!!!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!
Poor Cubs.......I feel bad for them......they SUCK!!!! HAHAHAHA

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