Len Barker's perfect game

On May 15, 1981, Len Barker of the Cleveland Indians threw a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Stadium, the 10th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.^[1] The Indians defeated the Blue Jays 3–0, as Barker did not allow a baserunner.^[2] Barker never once reached ball three against any Blue Jay hitter. He struck out 11 Blue Jays hitters (all of them swinging) including seven of the last 11 batters.^[3]

Len Barker's perfect game

Len Barker pitched the 10th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.
Toronto Blue Jays Cleveland Indians 0 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Toronto Blue Jays 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Cleveland Indians 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 X 3 7 0
Date	May 15, 1981
Venue	Cleveland Stadium
City	Cleveland, Ohio
Managers	Bobby Mattick (Toronto Blue Jays) Dave Garcia (Cleveland Indians)
Television	Cleveland: WUAB channel 43
TV announcers	Cleveland: Joe Tait and Bruce Drennan
Radio	Cleveland: WWWE (3WE) 1100 AM
Radio announcers	Cleveland: Herb Score and Nev Chandler

Barker's perfect game is the most recent no-hitter thrown by a Cleveland pitcher.^[4] "I run into people almost every day who want to talk about it," Barker said in 2006. "Everyone says, 'You're probably tired of talking about it.' I say, 'No, it's something to be proud of.' It's a special thing."^[5] The Indians have the longest active no-hitter drought in MLB.

Barker was the first perfect game pitcher who did not come to bat during the entire game, with the American League having adopted the designated hitter in 1973.

Ron Hassey, Barker's catcher, would catch Dennis Martínez's perfect game in 1991, thus becoming the only catcher, to date, to catch two perfect games and the only one to catch a perfect game in both leagues.

Danny Ainge, who would play 14 seasons in the NBA, was on the losing end of this game. He grounded out and struck out in his two at-bats; in the ninth inning, he was pinch-hit for by Alvis Woods, who struck out.

Statistics

Statistics taken from Baseball-Reference.com^[6]

Linescore

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Toronto Blue Jays (10–22)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Cleveland Indians (16–8)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	x	3	7	0
WP: Len Barker (3–1)   LP: Luis Leal (2–4) Home runs: TOR: None CLE: Jorge Orta (2)

Box score

Toronto AB R H RBI BB SO AVG Alfredo Griffin, SS 3 0 0 0 0 0 .203 Lloyd Moseby, RF 3 0 0 0 0 2 .231 George Bell, LF 3 0 0 0 0 2 .269 John Mayberry, 1B 3 0 0 0 0 2 .261 Willie Upshaw, DH 3 0 0 0 0 0 .196 Dámaso García, 2B 3 0 0 0 0 2 .216 Rick Bosetti, CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 .323 Danny Ainge, 3B 2 0 0 0 0 1 .183   Alvis Woods, PH 1 0 0 0 0 1 .213 Buck Martinez, C 2 0 0 0 0 1 .182   Ernie Whitt, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 .186 Totals 27 0 0 0 0 11 .000 Toronto IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Luis Leal (L, 2-4) 8 7 3 1 0 5 1 3.43 Totals 8 7 3 1 0 5 1 1.12

Cleveland AB R H RBI BB SO AVG Rick Manning, CF 4 1 1 0 0 1 .164 Jorge Orta, RF 4 1 3 1 0 0 .280 Mike Hargrove, 1B 4 1 1 0 0 0 .215 Andre Thornton, DH 3 0 0 1 0 0 .226 Ron Hassey, C 4 0 1 1 0 0 .208 Toby Harrah, 3B 4 0 1 0 0 1 .233 Joe Charboneau, LF 3 0 0 0 0 1 .216 Duane Kuiper, 2B 3 0 0 0 0 2 .320 Tom Veryzer, SS 3 0 0 0 0 0 .308 Totals 32 3 7 3 0 5 .219 Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Len Barker (W, 3-1) 9 0 0 0 0 11 0 1.31 Totals 9 0 0 0 0 11 0 0.00

References

1. Bruce Newman (1981-05-25). "Cleveland's Len Barker promised only a no-hitter". SI.com. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
2. "Pitcher Perfect: Len Barker tosses MLB's ninth perfect game". mlb.com. May 15, 1981. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
3. Matt Crossman (2011-05-15). "Thirty years later, Len Barker recalls perfect game". Sporting News. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
4. "Most Recent No-Hitters by Team". SI Vault. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
5. "Brewers". CNN. Archived from the original on May 26, 2008. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
6. "Toronto Blue Jays vs Cleveland Indians Box Score: May 15, 1981". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 19, 2023.

External links

• Box score at Baseball Reference