Alright for anyone keeping score at home, and seriously… if you’re keeping score of ME at home? get a damn hobby. Seriously. But lets say you enjoy my musings, and pay attention. You know I enjoy sports. A lot. I’m a huge baseball fan, my team being the New York Mets. I’m a huge hockey fan. My team being the Philadelphia Flyers. I live in the Delaware Valley (the area surrounding Philadelphia). So even though I’m a lifelong, die hard Mets fan I don’t despise the Phillies with my entire being.
So what was an easy decision at the start of the night, ended up being a painful one by the end of the night.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals? Flyers versus Blackhawks? Up against the struggling Phillies against the Marlins… about a quarter into the MLB season. No brainer, right? You watch the more important game.
WHich is what I, and a room full of friends did… until the 7th inning of the Phillies game when we started getting texts/calls/neighbors shouting from porches. “Doc’s perfect through 7.” Roy Halladay was making us pick. Between the Flyers first Cup appearance since ’97… and what could be the 20th perfect game in history.
The hockey game stayed on. One of the Cup watches left the room, found another TV and started watching the Phils. Roy was perfect through 8. Now we had to put the game on. We watched the final 3 out of the 20th perfect game in Major League HIstory. Crazy thing was? Not this season’s first. As I wrote about a mere 21 days ago, today. Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game on Mother’s Day.
This is the first season since 1880 where 2 perfect games have been thrown. (I’m pretty sure I also heard this is only the second season EVER where it happened.)
You can go many years between perfect games. 20 total in well over 100 years of MLB history. We’ve seen 3 in the last season and a quarter (Mark Buerhle pitched perfect game #18 last season).
From a sports standpoint its the only thing I can think of that would make me want to turn away from a Stanley Cup Finals game with the Flyers in it. Funny enough the NHL Playoff tag line is “History WIll Be Made”… but it was history in a rival sport that forced this sports fan to change the channel.
That first game with the Flyers/Hawks was a goaltending train wreck. I mean it made for an exciting game but maaan…not exactly highlight reel stuff from the goalies.
I’d have gone for watching Halladay get the perfect myself.