Perfect Game
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It took nearly 24 years and hundreds of baseball games, but I've finally witnessed perfection (or at least six innings of it). In the short-season Single-A New York-Penn. League, no less. Detroit Tigers' prospect Guillermo Moscoso, pitching for the Oneonta Tigers, set down all 27 Batavia Muckdogs in a 6-0 victory for the home squad.
But he wasn't the only one tossing untouchable stuff - my heckling game was in top form. For context, the O-Tigers play at Damaschke Field, which is set with a mountain backdrop and has all the ambiance of a full-sized Little League park. It is (one of?) the only professional sports venue(s) to not serve alcohol. Thusly, the announced crowd - on a day they gave away every ticket, something they do for about 1/3 of their games - was 2,700+. You're never further than 10 rows of metal bleachers from the field, and the family atmosphere and bare-bones scoreboard means a good pair of vocal chords will be heard by pretty much everyone on your side of the stands.
In the ninth inning, Moscoso induced the leadoff batter to groundout and then the PA annoucer declared that David Carpenter would pinch-hit for Mateo Marquez, followed by a split-second silence broken with:
> Does-n't Mat-ter! *Clap clap clap-clap-clap*
Totally broke the tension, cracked up everyone around us, and prompted The People's Champ to announce, "Brooklyn, you're officially coming to every Tigers game." Moscoso's next several pitches included two very close balls, the latter of which I followed with:
> Aw, c'mon - I've seen fewer balls on a golf course!
Carpenter lined out to short, bringing up Ross Oeder with the perfecto on the line. With a 1-2 count, Oeder popped foul, and first baseman Christopher Carlson and second baseman Justin Henry ran over, plenty of space to seal the game, and no one called for it. Ball drops, at bat still alive.
> Hey, 3-5 - Man evolved speech so you could call him off, asshole!
But Moscoso recovered, Oeder grounded to second, and the Tigers mobbed their 23-year-old teammate as the crowd went crazy. Cheers, Guillermo.
