By Jennie
Oakland Athletics’ pitcher Dallas Braden managed the rarest of baseball feats – a perfect game – on Mother’s Day, a date with special significance for him. The 26-year-old Braden’s mother died of melanoma when he was in high school, and he was raised in part by his grandmother, who was in the stands to see him complete the perfect game. She gave him a tearful hug in front of the dugout after the game, clearly proud of her grandson, who was raised in nearby Stockton, CA.
For those of you unschooled in baseball terms, a perfect game is one where no batter from the opposing team reaches base. Nine players up, nine players down. The still impressive but much less rare no-hitter allows for batters to reach base on errors, hit batsmen, walks, and by other weird and arcane baseball rules which I either can’t think of or have never heard of. To give you an idea of just how rare a perfect game is, in major league history Braden’s is just the 19th ever, in around 200,000 games played (if Yahoo Answers is to be believed, and I’m sure it’s a perfectly reliable source).
Braden, with just 18 wins and 23 losses in his three-year major league career, may have seemed an unlikely candidate for such an illustrious accomplishment. After all, he had previously been best known (this season, at least) for becoming enraged at New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez during a game Braden pitched on April 22. Rodriguez had broken an “unwritten rule” of baseball (of which there are many) by walking over the pitcher’s mound on a trip back to first from third when he was a baserunner.
Whatever Braden’s career holds for him in the future, he will forever be linked with some of the greats in the game by this accomplishment. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if achieving it on Mother’s Day with his grandmother in the stands, and thus honoring the two women who raised him, might not mean more to him in the end.
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6 Responses to MLB Pitcher Pitches Perfect Game on Mother’s Day
I loved this story for a number of reasons. I am sure Mother’s Day is probably still a holiday filled with mixed emotions for Braden. I am glad he kept that in check and turned in such an exceptional performance. That his grandmother was there to witness this? Well, it nearly puts tears in my eyes.
Another neat part of this story is the fact that the lowly A’s – a shade over .500, but with one of the lowest payrolls and fan attendance in baseball, could give this gift to their fans. Apparently, there were many from Stockton (roughly, a little more than an hour’s drive from Oakland) there to cheer on their home town boy too.
What a feel good story!
This is a great story and we watched as it was happening . My husband would not not let me watch. I did see him hug his grandmother and I thought how nice that was.
Congratulations to Braden and to the A’s. Great story!
Incredible story. Thanks Jennie, I am not a baseball fan and I would never have heard of this. What a meaningful accomplishment. How great that his grandmother was right there to see it.
I did make Pam watch the last batter as this is a moment in sports that needs to be watched. I have seen 2 no-hitters in my life (I took my Father-in-Law to one of them which was his first and last major league game. He thinks its a common occurance!) and both were extremely exciting. You have to have skill, (there is a lot of luck in no-hitters), but perfect games are unique, because you have to have great stuff (fastball, curve) but your control must be perfect that day as you can’t avoid great hitters by walking them.
Great day for Braden and the A’s. By the way, only one pitcher (Johnny Vander Meer) has pitched back to back no-hitters so everyone will be watching Braden in his next start which should be this Friday or Saturday.
I hope he does it! Of course, my favorite part is thinking of his mom watching from above, and his gram there to hug him. How special!
You know what also sounds awesome about this? It sounds like the game might have been short? Nine up, nine down. My biggest complaint about baseball (and golf, and NASCAR, and the Superbowl, and March Madness) is that it takes too long. I like a good, old-fashioned 4-minute mile.
Ann, even as a baseball fan, I kind of agree. If I’m at home, I don’t care how long the game goes; I can pause it, change the channel, take a nap. But when I’m at the ballpark I like to keep things moving along. I’ve felt ambivalent at games where the Giants were behind and tied it in the late innings. A win v. extra innings? Sigh.