Perfect Game: Jim Bunning

Game Recap | Box Score

Looking into the history of Jim Bunning’s perfect game, quite a few major milestones were met with this rare event. First, it was the first perfect game in the National League of the modern baseball area or at least the first one is almost 85 years. Second, it was the first perfect game in a regular season since 1922, as the last one was thrown in the World Series by Don Larsen in 1956. Third, this was the first no-hitter and perfect game to be thrown at Shea Stadium, although Sandy Koufax had no0-hut the Mets in 1962. Finally, the game was pitched on Father’s Day and Mr. Bunning was interestingly a father of seven, and his daughter was in the crowd to see her dad’s performance.

Striking out 10 of his 27 batters on 89 pitches, he had particular luck with Mets’ leadoff hitter Jim Hickman, striking him out 3 times. Jim’s perfect game was only the 7th perfect game in major league baseball history and the first as a part of a doubleheader.