Dominant Games: An Introduction

No-hitters have always struck me as an oddity in baseball. The mere mention of a no-hitter will keep you glued to the television until that first hit comes (if it does), when you will instantly switch the channel (as will ESPN). A no-hitter will turn a home crowd against the home town boys if the opposition is close to one. There have been 267 (through 2010) recognized no-hitters thrown in Major League Baseball since 1875 and the authors of these gems are quite diverse. Of course, there have been many Hall of Famers who have thrown one including Nolan Ryan with seven and Sandy Koufax with four, but then there have been no-names such as Bobo Holloman, who managed to squeeze a no-hitter among his three career wins, and Mike Warren who won a meager nine games, but was good or lucky enough to throw one. Other great pitchers such as Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens have never thrown a no-hitter although all of these pitchers have their share of great games.

This is a series that concentrates on those great games be they no-hitter, perfect games or other unusually great performances.I thought it would be fun to go through these games more in depth to find a story behind each great game and to look for some of the similarities and differences between these performances. Which of these games was the most dominant; which of these was the ugliest? Which pitcher had the most luck that night and which didn’t need much help at all? These questions and more will all be explored and I seek to take you to each game. I will also attempt to score these games in an objective way.

The Method:

There are many different ways that great pitching performances have been measured in past. One that is commonly used now is Bill James’ game score, which is explained in this glossary.

I’m going to offer a more observational way (although of course I will use the game statistics to help in my scoring) to determine the strength of a pitcher’s performance.  I’m looking for the top of the top, so without further ado, here is the system I have developed and the questions I will keep in mind as I watch the games.

Dominance: How unhittable was the pitcher? Were there a lot of swings and misses, feeble pop ups or soft ground balls?

Efficiency: How quickly and easily did the pitcher retire hitters? Were there a lot of deep counts or a lot of walks because the pitcher couldn’t put a hitter away?

Luck: It’s been said that in almost every no-hitter there’s that one hard hit ball that’s hit right at a fielder or one great play by a fielder that makes the no-hitter possible. Were there a lot of those “at-em” balls or some exceptional fielding that really aided the pitcher in his historic feat?

Conditions: This may be more conjecture, but one thing I’ve noticed in watching some historic feats is that the opposing pitcher sometimes performs almost as well. Did the umpire have an unusually large strike zone? How was the visibility for the hitters? Pitcher’s will be graded partly on how much better they did verses what their opponent did.

Competition: Sensibly, a big factor in a pitcher’s performance is who he’s facing. How good was the opposing team’s offense that year? How many regulars were sitting that day?

There are five categories, each of which will be graded out of 10 for a total of 50 points. This rating system is not to take away from what a pitcher did. Instead, I want to find out how impressive each dominant game was. Each performance was chosen for a reason (because that pitcher most likely put on a clinic that night) and this is a competition of the best. I have no idea how the scores will end up at the end, although I can’t wait to find out.

Major League Baseball has certain qualifications a game must have to be considered a no-hitter or perfect game. The pitcher must go 9 innings and he must pitch the whole game without giving up any hits (or in the case of a perfect game, no base runners).

Some no-hitters got taken off the books in September 1991 when stricter restrictions went in place. I am under no such restriction so I will examine some games that are not no-hitters, but could actually be considered more impressive. Look for Kerry Wood and Roger Clemens’ 20 strikeout games as well as Armando Galarraga’s near perfect game. I plan on including some of the near misses, such as Pedro Martinez’s perfect game through nine innings (he lost it in the tenth) and Andy Hawkins’ eight-inning no-hit loss with the Yankees. I do have a few general restrictions: Any game that is included must either be a complete game or the pitcher had to go at least nine innings. Any no-hitter or perfect game will be considered also.

In this series of articles, I will explore some of the lore behind some of the best games ever pitched and the men who hurled the gems. Each game has a special story to tell and I hope to express those tales here. This will be an exciting journey for me as I try to discover the most dominant pitching the game has ever known.

I would love to know what you think. Let me know in the comments below. Check back soon for the first game of this series.