Philip Humber and Baseball’s 21 Perfect Games

Philip Humber Salutes Crowd After Pitching Baseball's 21st Perfect Game

On Saturday, White Sox starter Philip Humber became the 21st player in baseball history to toss a perfect game.

21. That is an astonishingly low number. Since 1876, 200,292 professional baseball games have been played (by my count). If you include pitchers from both sides, that’s 400,584 opportunities for a perfect game, putting the odds of such an occurrence at an infinitesimal .00005.

And that’s not including the postseason! Only one perfect game has been pitched then – Don Larsen’s World Series gem in 1956.

Larsen is one of three Yankees to pitch a perfect game, most by any team. The White Sox also have three.

Humber’s was a long road to perfection. The Sox are Humber’s fourth team in six years (Mets, Twins, Royals), for a lifetime record of 12-10.

That’s not all. Before even making a professional appearance, Humber underwent Tommy John surgery.

After making his debut in 2006, Humber finally had a full season last year for Chicago, where he went 9-9.

What a comeback.

He joins these hurlers below on baseball’s all-time perfect games list.

For more on these perfect games, including the box scores, check out my source, baseball-almanac.com.

Follow me on Twitter @VinGetz.

1. Lee Richmond (Worcester Ruby Legs, 1880)

2. John Montgomery Ward (Providence Grays, 1880)

3. Cy Young (Boston Americans, 1904)

4. Addie Joss (Cleveland Naps, 1908)

5. Charlie Robertson (Chicago White Sox, 1922)

6. Don Larsen (New York Yankees, 1956)

7. Jim Bunning (Philadelphia Phillies, 1964)

8. Sandy Koufax (L.A. Dodgers, 1965)

9. Catfish Hunter (Oakland A’s, 1968)

10. Len Barker (Cleveland Indians, 1981)

11. Mike Witt (California Angels, 1984)

12. Tom Browning (Cincinnati Reds, 1988)

13. Dennis Martinez (Montreal Expos, 1991)

14. Kenny Rogers (Texas Rangers, 1994)

15. David Wells (New York Yankees, 1998)

16. David Cone (New York Yankees, 1999)

17. Randy Johnson (Arizona Diamondbacks, 2004)

18. Mark Buehrle (Chicago White Sox, 2009)

19. Dallas Braden (Oakland A’s, 2010)

20. Roy Halladay (Philadelphia Phillies, 2010)

21. Philip Humber (Chicago White Sox, 2012)

Photo: larrybrownsports.com