With his perfect game against the Florida Marlins on Saturday night, Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Roy Halladay became the 20th pitcher to throw a perfect game in MLB history.
The question can now be asked, is Halladay the best pitcher to throw a perfect game?
But, after looking at the list of perfect game pitchers, there are some names that start the argument against Halladay.
Of the twenty pitchers, I singled out a few names that are worthy of making the discussion of best pitcher to throw a perfect game.
Cy Young, May 5, 1904
Addie Joss, October 2, 1908
Sandy Koufax, September 9, 1965
Catfish Hunter, May 8, 1968
Randy Johnson, May 18, 2004
Roy Halladay, May 29, 2010
The first four are already Hall of Famers and Johnson and Halladay should join them at the end of their careers.
Joss can be eliminated because of how short his career was. If Joss did not die at 31 from disease, he would have had better numbers and a more illustrious career.
Koufax lost years from his career at the end when he had to retire after only 11 seasons in the big leagues.
Now, the debate really begins.
Cy Young is the best pitcher statiscally in wins but he did play in a different era of baseball when pitchers were the focus of the game.
Hunter can also be thrown into the discussion with a career 224-166 record and over 2,000 strikeouts.
The Big Unit was a dominant force no matter where he landed and his 303 wins and 4,875 strikouts are there to prove how dominant he was.
Then, there is Halladay.
Halladay is now 33 years old with 155 career wins and over 1,500 strikeouts. Beyond the statistics, Halladay was consistently good on a consistently bad team in Toronto for a decade and is now on a winning team in Philadelphia.
Will he reach 300 wins? He just might. At 155 already, he will win at least ten more this season and has had 16 wins in each of the past four seasons.
So, the answer to the question of Who is the best perfect game pitcher is hard to figure out due to the eras that these four played in but Roy Halladay is surely on track to keep the debate going on and on for generations of baseball fans to debate this question.
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