Odds of a perfect game in baseball

Germán's Perfect Game Is 1 in 10, for MLB: Data Viz · Lev Akabas · Likelihood of Rare MLB Single-Game Feats. This is insane. Odds of an immaculate inning: roughly 1 in Odds of a perfect game: roughly 1 in I believe that makes the odds. If you take the average of all pitchers, the odds are odds of a perfect game in baseball to be closer to 20, to 1. “With x 30 team games, that's almost 5, games. On Wednesday, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán threw just the 24th perfect game in MLB history. It was unfortunate that the Yankees.

The Odds Of A Perfect Game

Chasing Perfection: An Inside Look at Baseball's Perfect Games

That means no hits, no walks, no hitting by a pitch, and no mistakes by the catcher or fielders that let a batter get on base. The ages of the pitchers who have pitched a perfect game range from 20 to 40, with the most perfect games pitched by pitchers aged 26 and 29, and throughout the mid to late twenties.

However, some pitchers defy the odds — like Randy Johnson , who at age 40 pitched a perfect game with 13 strikeouts, the second-most strikeouts in a perfect game. Where do most perfect games happen. California also claims 4 perfect games. Sources: Wikipedia. Dividing 24 into ,, we get the result of 9,, meaning that a Perfect Game occurs once in every 9, games.

Turning this into a percentage, we find that a given game has about a. Those are pretty long odds themselves, but what really threw me for a loop was that Lee Lowenfish mentioned in his book that only one player in the long history of major league baseball has played in — are you ready for this?

If you can do this calculation — or if you know of someone who can — please let me know. The odds have to be astronomical. Now before I tell you who this player is — and to hopefully keep you in suspense. The game was vastly different back in For example, only underhand pitching from a flat, marked-out box 45 feet from home plate was allowed. Also, it took eight balls to draw a walk, and a batter was not awarded first base if hit by a pitch.

So should the two Perfect Games from the pre-modern era even be counted. If we eliminate them, then only 22 Perfect Games have been thrown in the modern era. For the featured photo above, I chose the great Cy Young, who threw the first post Perfect Game on March 5, a list of the 24 Perfect Game pitchers is at the bottom of the post.

In another baseball oddity, there were six Yankees who also played in both the Wells and Cone Perfect Games. As far as I can tell, there are no others who played in more than one Perfect Game. I'm a baseball historian who also enjoys writing. Odds of a perfect game in baseball My forte is identifying ballplayers in old photos, and my special interest is the Dead Ball Era.

Very interesting, Gary. I always learn a lot by reading your essays. He should buy a lottery ticket. Thanks Sue. I really learned a lot about him. He was with the Browns, and with the Orioles. Those were poor teams. If you remove those seasons from his W-L record, for the rest of his career he was , a.

Though never an All-Star, he was a competent major-league pitcher. Another such indicator is that in 5 World Series, Stengel used him 10 times — 6 starts and 4 games in relief. His WS record was with a 2. Thanks David…glad to set the record straight on Don Larsen and give him the credit he deserves!

Thanks to our reader Pete Aman for sending this email and sharing this information about umpire Ted Barrett:. Gary, I enjoyed reading your essay about perfect games. Turns out he is the only umpire to ever call 2 perfect games behind the plate: David Cone in and Matt Cain in Superb article, Gary. Very interesting and informative. For 12 innings, no Milwaukee batter had reached base.

Eddie Mathews advanced Mantilla to 2nd with a sac bunt. To set up an inning-ending DP, Hank Aaron was intentionally walked. Adcock however; knowing his hit was a HR, completed rounding all 4 bases, passing Aaron in the process. Instead of Adcock being credited with a walk-off 3-run HR Milwaukee win, the baserunning mistake resulted in him being credited with a double, hence, a final score.

All of which, Sir Marshall, leaves me with one sure way to remedy the cruel injustice dealt Harvey Haddix in his herculean 12 inning pitching masterpiece. Imagine, retiring 36 consecutive major league batters and not even gaining a victory. Any starting pitcher who retires 27 batters, which is a regulation game, without giving up a base hit will be credited with a no-hitter.

Any starting pitcher who retires 27 batters without allowing a single batter to reach base, will be credited with a perfect game. With this rule change, Haddix will thus get credit for a perfect game with an asterisk and an explanation of the unique circumstances surrounding the contest. Moving forward then, no starting pitcher will ever suffer the outrageous slight that befell Harvey Haddix.

Of course, first you have to make me the new baseball commissioner.