In a perfect world, German's perfect game would make him a perfect certainty to stay in a perfect Yankee rotation, throughout this perfect season.
Breaking News: It's not a perfect world - it's Waterworld, but with wildfires - and German's up-and-down career has made him the Jekyll/Hyde, if not the Ricochet Rabbit, of Yankee pitchers.
He's either unhittable, or unwatchable. He'll go the distance, or go out early. Before last night, in his last two starts, German had surrendered 17 runs in 5.1 innings. Yikes. Along with making the list of perfect pitchers, he might qualify for one of spontaneous human combustions.
Today, on that Perfect list of 24, German appears with Roy Halliday, David Cone, David Wells, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Randy Johnson and Addie Joss. The question is: Will his next start be Koufax... or Joss?
Which German will show up? The one who overwhelmed miserable Oakland - (yes, it must be noted: this came against baseball's worst tomato can) - or the one who was recently clobbered by Seattle and Boston? Flip a coin. But at the least, this adds to German's fantastical Yankee narrative, which already reads like a Cormac McCarthy novel.
He's been injured, he's been suspended, he's been caught with stick-um, he's been perfect, he's been awful, he's been abusive, he's been abused... sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?
Soon - say the all-star break - the Yank rotation could look like this:
Cole
Rodon
Severino
Cortes
German/Brito/Schmidt
Not chopped liver, if everybody stays healthy. (Which they won't.) Today, German owns that 5th spot. But Schmidt has improved and doesn't lug around all that - ahem - imperfect baggage.
Two years ago, the Joey Gallo trade exploded in Cashman's face. Last August's trade of Jordan Montgomery brought immediate humiliation, as Harrison Bader couldn't take the field. (Even today, with Bader back, that deal is hard to justify.)
Still, everything is pitching, pitching, pitching, and last night brought perfection. Now comes the happily ever after: Who is the new Mr. Perfect? And will Domingo German get the chance to burnish his newfound celebrity in October?
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28 comments:
I picked the wrong day to quit amphetamines. Just couldn't stay awake after watching the debacle Tuesday night.
AA is the IIH good luck charm!
Wonders abound. Wife beaters can be perfect too.
What the fuckers happened last night?
Unwavering positivity?
Is it a coincidence that Torres was not fielding last evening?
Mrs German was the happiest person last night
Of course, she was in NY.
Kyle Higashioka is only the second Yankees catcher ever to call multiple no-hitters, joining Yogi Berra.
AA -
So you will be traveling with the team the rest of the season yes?
After the game, crew chief James Hoye said German had "the stickiest hand I've ever felt."
Hard to believe that Sterling and Kay both missed that game last night...
Higgy must have had the sticky stuff.
AA, congratulations for ushering in a perfecto! I hope the Yankees contact you soon and give you tickets and all travel expenses paid plus meal money for every Yankee game the rest of the year. (You'll be required to bring along the UNWAVERING sign, of course.)
I always knew Domingo German had it in him. He was the best Yankee pitcher when he got suspended for slapping his bitch at a fundraiser dinner. (We've also heard that he went berserk at his house later that night.) That was a long, long time ago. When we were all young, him included. 2019, was it? Basically, almost half an MLB career has passed since then.
I expect to hear some wisecracks about how the perfecto came against Oakland, the worst team in baseball. It doesn't take away from his perfecto. Oakland hasn't been perfect game'd this year by anyone else. (When David Wells pitched his perfect game in 1998, I seem to remember it came against a less than stellar Twinkies lineup.) And it's only the 24th perfect game in the history of major league baseball. Hell, the Yankees lost the night before to Oakland's fearsome lineup.
The only problem for German will be living up to what the perfect means for modern Yankee fans. It means that he has to win a World Series Championship this year to cap it off. (Larson, perfect game in World Series, 1956 World Series Champion; David Wells, perfect game 1998, 1998 World Series Champion; David Cone, perfect game 1999, 1999 World Series Champion.)
@Hammer...with expansion, the watering down of talent, and owners who don't give a shit about winning, it's amazing we've only had 24 perfect games in the history of MLB...
Hey, Don Larsen was well behind on his child support when he pitched his perfect game—something his wife's lawyer pointed out at the time.
Um, actually Duque, though I know "Joss" sounds irresistibly close to "dross," Addie Joss was pretty good. He won over 20 games four years in a row, led the AL in ERA twice (1.59, and 1.16) and had a lifetime ERA of 1.89 with 160 wins—impressive even for the deadfall era.
He died of a bacterial infection at age 31—ah, those pre-penicillin days!—which is why no one has ever heard of him. Nonetheless, the Veterans' Committee voted him into the Hall.
He is, I believe, the only player ever to make the Hall with fewer that the required, 10-years playing time.
If German becomes Joss, I think we will all be very happy.
It was thrilling to listen to!!! Annnnd THANK YOU AA for bending the vision of the JuJu god's focus away from any of the stupid mental mistakes and general fuckery that has often plagued this team this year>>> Well done Sir!!!!!!!!!!!!
In a rare display of gentility, I’ll forego the usual snark and cynicism and simply congratulate German on his fantastic achievement. He brought genuine excitement to an otherwise dull injury prone season. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Duque: re Joss … baseball-reference.com is your friend. You would think a baseball blogger my think “Hmm I’ve never heard of this guy, maybe I should look him up before suggesting he sucks!”
But, that would involve a modicum of work, I suppose, rather than just farting your opinions out as usual
Do I recognize that voice? Is it Pizza Boy in disguise?
JM,
For some reason, I was reminded of Men in Black:
"
Elle : Hey, Jay! Zed called. The high consulate from Solaxiant 9 wants floor seats for the next Bulls game.
Jay : All right, let's put in a call to Dennis Rodman. He's from that planet.
Elle : Rodman? You're kidding.
Jay : Nope.
Elle : Not much of a disguise.
"
Rufus, I had forgotten that exchange...and about 90% of everything else that happened before yesterday.
One of the finer pleasures of getting old is rereading books I've forgotten, watching movies and TV shows I've forgotten, trying restaurants I've already been to but forgotten...it's interesting and often entertaining.
I do remember Coney's perfecto, though, and have always thought his dropping to his knees and the look on his face seemed fake, somehow. Maybe it's just me.
JM
I just downloaded a book this morning. Opened it, sounded familiar. Yep, it was already in my Kindle. Getting old is not as much fun as every said it would be.
Ricochet Rabbit???!!!! Wow, going back into the archives there, eh? Great "get"! And NOT to be found on "baseball-refernce.com. ;)
@ JM, Your memory is better than mine. I had to youtube Coney's perfect game knee drop pose. It took a bit of searching. Most videos show Brosius making the catch to end it. Not Cone dropping to his knees. But I found it buried in a 9 minute Yankee "I was there" video.
It didn't seem to me that the look on his face was fake. I think he was just relieved, kind of like the way you feel when you've just taken a massive dump without damaging your caboose. Anyway, Coney is half crazy, like most of us on this here blog. So, if it was indeed a contrived moment, he is, in the immortal words of The Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away", forgiven. You are all forgiven! Winning the World Series later that year will make anything forgiveable.
TLDR
As for Addie Joss: The greatest essay on baseball ever is Roger Angell's "The Interior Stadium," from The New Yorker in 1971. In this passage, Angell quotes his father--a long-time Cleveland Indians fan--on the intergenerational rhythms of the sport; the elder Angell recalls the greatness of Joss in his day and his importance to the fans of Cleveland:
"By thinking about baseball like this-by playing it over, keeping it warm in a cold season-we begin to make discoveries. With luck, we may even penetrate some of its mysteries. One of those mysteries is its vividness-the absolutely distinct inner vision we retain of that hitter, that eager base-runner, of however long ago. My father was talking the other day about some of the ballplayers he remembered. He grew up in Cleveland, and the Indians were his team. Still are. 'We had Nap Lajoie at second,' he said. 'You've heard of him. A great big broad-shouldered fellow, but a beautiful fielder. He was a rough customer. If he didn't like an umpire's call, he'd give him a fateful of tobacco juice. The shortstop was Terry Turner-a smaller man, and blond. I can still see Lajoie picking up a grounder and wheeling and floating the ball over to Turner. Oh, he was quick on his feet! In right field we had Elmer Flick, now in the Hall of Fame. I liked the center fielder, too. His name was Harry Bay, and he wasn't a heavy hitter, but he was very fast and covered a lot of ground. They said he could circle the bases in twelve seconds flat. I saw him get a home run inside the park-the ball hit on the infield and went right past the second baseman and out to the wall, and Bay beat the relay. I remember Addie Joss, our great right-hander. Tall, and an elegant pitcher. I once saw him pitch a perfect game. He died young.'
"My father has been a fan all his life, and he has pretty well seen them all. He has told me about the famous last game of the 1912 World Series, in Boston, and seeing Fred Snodgrass drop that fly ball in the tenth inning, when the Red Sox scored twice and beat the Giants. I looked up Harry Bay and those other Indians in the Baseball Encyclopedia and I think my father must have seen that inside-the-park homer in the summer of 1904. Lajoie batted .376 that year, and Addie Joss led the American League with an earnedrun average of 1.59, but the Indians finished in fourth place. Sixty-seven years have gone by, yet Nap Lajoie is in plain view, and the ball still floats over to Terry Turner. . . . "
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