Title/Author:
“Almost Perfect: The
Heartbreaking Pursuit of Pitching’s Holy Grail” by Joe Cox
Tags:
Baseball,
professional, history
Publish date:
February 1, 2017
Length:
272 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (good)
Review:
Sixteen times in the history of major league baseball, a
starting pitcher has been able to retire the first 26 batters he faced, only to
not be credited with a perfect game. Thirteen times the 27th batter
reached base safely and in the other three games that batter was also retired,
but the pitcher did not complete a perfect game until his team won. Those
pitchers and games are the subject of this book by Joe Cox.
The stories are varied – from the 12 perfect innings thrown by
Harvey Haddix, only to lose the game in the 13th inning to Eddie
Shore relieving Babe Ruth and then retiring 26 batters, each game story is told
in three acts.
One act is a brief biography of the pitcher who came very close
to making history. Another act describes
the important facts surrounding the game or the atmosphere surrounding it, such
as the chapter on Mike Mussina’s near-perfect game in 2001, just days before
the terrorist attack on the United States. The third act is an inning-by-inning
recap of the game itself. These are
quite good and show the research that Cox did in order to write about each
at-bat by those hitters who were retired in order inning after inning. Even though the reader will know that
eventually that the 27th batter will get a hit, there is still good
drama in each game description.
The other two acts in each chapter occasionally will feel like they stray too far away from the objective which is to build up the drama of the game only to show the heartbreak suffered by the pitcher. When the subject pertains to the history of the team more than the pitcher or the game, it feels like filler material. As an example, in the chapter about Pedro Martinez’s game in which he retired 27 batters and lost the perfect game in the 10th inning, a significant portion of the chapter was devoted to the history of the Montreal Expos, the team for which Martinez was pitching.
The other two acts in each chapter occasionally will feel like they stray too far away from the objective which is to build up the drama of the game only to show the heartbreak suffered by the pitcher. When the subject pertains to the history of the team more than the pitcher or the game, it feels like filler material. As an example, in the chapter about Pedro Martinez’s game in which he retired 27 batters and lost the perfect game in the 10th inning, a significant portion of the chapter was devoted to the history of the Montreal Expos, the team for which Martinez was pitching.
While some of this material may not have been necessary to capture the spirit of the game and what went through the pitcher’s mind, the book was still a good read. It was very interesting to read about these games and realize how many different ways that a game like this can end in a manner that will not be a happy one for a pitcher who has been so dominant. Baseball fans will want to add this one to their bookshelves.
I wish to thank Lyons Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
Buying links:
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