BASEBALL

A very sad event occurred in major league baseball Wednesday night. A blown call by an umpire on the 27th out of a game denied Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Understand that only 20 perfect games have been pitched in the major leagues in over 140 years.

In reading a story about the event, I found out that the first perfect game was pitched by Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs in 1880. Yes, the Ruby Legs. I had no idea. Where did they get these names for teams when baseball was in it's infant stages? Redlegs was already taken so they chose Ruby Legs? Unbelievable! Did the Red Sox come before the White Sox? Were there any other teams named after their socks back then?

The last perfect game was pitched by Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies. What the heck is a Philly? ... not a female horse, I presume. A Philly must be someone from Philadelphia. Its a little redundant to call someone a Philadelphia Philly since they couldn't use that name anywhere else.

The second perfect game was thrown in 1880 by a guy from the Providence Greys. I'm not sure if they were old or wore a grey uniform all the time. The third perfect game was pitched in 1904 by the immortal Cy Young of the Boston Americans. I suppose, since only about half of all players are actually US citizens these days, you couldn't call a team the Americans.

Now for the best of all. The fourth perfect game was pitched in 1908 by Addie Joss of the Cleveland Naps. Were they tired? What a name. Leave it to Cleveland.
:o)