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Of the 23 perfect games in Major League Baseball history, two of those came when the pitcher's mound was still only 45 feet away from home plate. Thus, it's easy to discount those or at least divide the eras and call the 60-feet-six-inches era the "modern" era.
Once the mound was moved back, the first perfect game ever spun was fittingly delivered by the immortal Cy Young. It happened exactly 110 years ago Monday against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics.
Baseball-Almanac.com has the box score from May 5, 1904, which shows Young's line of nine innings pitched, eight strikeouts and otherwise a bunch of zeroes. Of interest there is that Young's counterpart in that game was also a Hall of Famer in right-hander Rube Waddell.
Young's gem was first and there have since been 20 other perfect games in modern-day history.
Young is still the all-time MLB leader in wins, innings pitched and complete games. As we all know, the award given to the best individual pitcher in each league annually is named after him. Thus, it is fitting that he was the first man to throw a perfecto from the modern-day mound distance.
Happy Anniversary, Denton True "Cy" Young.
