Imperfectly Perfect

 

Domingo Germán and catcher Kyle Higashioka celebrate
the fourth perfect game in Yankees history
(Photo: USATSI)

For the second time, I missed an entire perfect game.

David Wells' masterpiece was thrown while I was at a convention in Las Vegas. In that pre-smartphone era, I didn't learn about it until I returned to my hotel room at the Riviera and turned on SportsCenter.

I figured it out during the opening tease and yelled.

The first perfect game by a Yankees pitcher since 1956 and I saw none of it.

I listened to a large chunk of David Cone's perfecto on the radio in 1999.

Last night, I fell asleep, waking up to deal with Mr. Rascal when I glanced at my phone. Sneaking a peak at Facebook, I saw Kathy Dempsey's (she's forever "The Queen of Yacht Rock") post.

"Yankee fans weren’t booing him tonight like they did last week," she wrote. "Glad I stayed up for this!"

Then I saw that Domingo Germán had pitched a perfect game.

And I knew the haters would be out in force.

The easy knock is that he shut down the Oakland Athletics, which are in the middle of a historically bad season. But, here's the thing: you can only play the schedule in front of you.

Sandy Koufax no-hit the Mets in 1962. It still counted. Matt Cain threw a perfect game against a Houston Astros team that would lose 107 games in 2012. It still counted. 

So, yeah, Germán's perfect game is real. 

Then there's the big problem: Germán was suspended for violating MLB's and Players Association's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.

He slapped his then-girlfriend at a party hosted by CC Sabathia in 2019 before becoming violent later on per news reports at that time. His girlfriend hid from him and was removed from the scene. While the police were not called and thus no report was filed, MLB suspended Germán for 81 games.

The charges were disgusting and he got what he absolutely deserved. I, frankly, wanted him out of The Bronx and said so at the time.

I do, for what it's worth, believe in second chances and redemption but that is much easier said than done.

Still, Germán was not someone that I wanted on the Yankees, further intensified when he was suspended for 10 games for excess rosin on his hands.

So, there's that to process, but there's also the historian in me. That side of me sees only the 24th perfect game in history and, regardless of everything else, that's pretty remarkable.

But the woman Germán hit that night is now his wife and the mother of his three children. She has forgiven him and they seem to be blissful. 

Now, of course, we know there is a long history of women in bad situations who make it seem like everything is great. I can only take Mara Germán at her word.

So the takeaway for me is excitement at history while still being outraged at his behavior. Both can be true.

If, however, he's cleaned himself up then all the better. I don't live in their house. I don't know them.

I'm willing to bet you don't know them either.

So I'll separate the two items. The person might not be great. The achievement is.

One last item about the perfect game: the broadcast.

"Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the 9th, nineteen hundred and 65, he made the toughest walk of his career, I'm sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game." -- Vin Scully, Sep 9, 1965.

In a piece written by Brendan Kuty on The Athletic, Kuty writes: "But he (Ryan Ruocco) was avoiding one thing. Out of concern he might jinx Germán, he made sure all night not to use the word 'perfect."

In a quote to Kuty, Ruocco added that he used the word "forever" instead. 

What an absolute cop-out.

I'm seeing people fawn over the call today but, to me, if you're buying into jinxes and superstitions, you're not doing your job.

For the record, Scully (who called 23 no-hitters and perfect games combined) said the word "perfect" three times in the ninth inning before the last out of Koufax's masterpiece in 1965.

So, no. Don't tell me what an "epic" call it was when you can't bring yourself to actually report what's going on. Though I will say that Ruocco did the right thing by laying out after the last out. I think fellow Fordham grad Scully would at least approve of that.

Since I've gone this far, let me add that there have been four Yankees perfect games. Of the broadcasts I've heard:

Don Larsen's 1956 World Series masterpiece was called by Mel Allen and Vin Scully on NBC and Bob Wolff and Bob Neal on Mutual Radio. Scully and Wolff each called the final out.

David Wells' 1998 game was called by Jim Kaat and Ken Singleton on MSG and John Sterling and Michael Kay on WABC Radio. Kaat and Sterling each received the honor of calling the last out.

David Cone's 1999 perfect game was called by Bobby Murcer and Tim McCarver on WNYW (FOX 5) and Sterling and Kay on WABC. McCarver and Sterling called the final out.

Domingo Germán's perfect game was called by Ryan Ruocco and Jeff Nelson on YES. John Sterling didn't make this trip so Justin Shackil and Suzyn Waldman handled radio duties on WFAN, with Ruocco and Shackil handling the final out calls.

These notes are obviously incomplete as I haven't listed each pre and postgame crew and any stadium reporters, such as Meredith Marakovich on YES. I've also not included the opposing team broadcasts. There would likely be, for instance, a French call of Cone's game from the Montreal Expos broadcast. There are also Spanish broadcasts, such as Rickie Ricardo for the Yankees last night.

These voices will be attached to this forever. It's an extremely cool honor and not one taken lightly.

All part of a special moment.