by The day of May 15th started out as any normal day for Lenny Barker. “It was a normal spring day with some sprinkles and coolness in the air. I didn’t do anything different from my normal routine. I ate a little food, but not much, because I didn’t like to eat a lot on the days that I pitched. I laid around the house and relaxed a bit before leaving to pick my brother up from the airport. I left my house around 4pm to pick him up but his plane was late and I had to wait. When he finally arrived, we had to speed to the ballpark. When I finally got there, I had trainer Jimmy Warfield put some heat on my arm real quick so I could rush out and warm up. Once I got out there and starting stretching, I was fine. We didn’t realize right away that when I was warming up I was throwing almost all fastballs.”
Lenny Barker took the mound on the night of May 15th in front of a crowd of 7,290 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Their opponents for the game were the struggling Toronto Blue Jays led by manager, Bobby Mattick. Taking the mound for the Jays was Luis Leal, who at that point in the season was a modest 2-3. Barker had come into the contest with a record of 2-1. The “balmy” 49 degree Cleveland spring weather was perfect for a pitcher’s duel. Behind the plate calling the balls and strikes was Rich Garcia with Greg Kosc, Don Denkinger and Jim McKean handling the calls on the base paths.
Pitchers and umpires don’t really mix, but Barker knew Rich Garcia and was familiar with is strike zone as Len discloses, “I knew Richie before that game, he was a good umpire who called a good game. Over time, you get to know the umpires and you can tell their strike zones. Most of them keep the same strike zones and some don’t. Being a pitcher, you don’t become friendly with umpires but you know who they are and remain cordial with them. There are a lot of good umpires but there are also a lot of bad ones.”
The fans in the stands, who just wanted to kick back and watch some baseball, had no idea what a special moment they were in store for. Little did anyone know that Lenny Barker was about to catch the attention of not only the fans in the stadium, but also baseball fans nationwide.
The battery mate for Barker that evening was Ron Hassey, who went on to catch another perfect game later in his career with pitcher, Dennis Martinez, in 1991. Len looks back at working with Ron Hassey, “I felt really comfortable with Ron Hassey. He was a guy who was an all American third baseman out of Arizona. He was able to make a successful transition from third base to catcher. It was amazing to see how he progressed. He actually was a pretty darn good catcher, who did a good job and called a great game. He worked hard back there and was the only catcher to catch two perfect games, so he must have done something right.
We also had Bo Diaz, who was an All Star in 1981. He was a pretty good catcher who caught for me down in Venezuela numerous times. I was used to both and they were both excellent catchers. Sometimes you get a relationship with a certain guy and who you feel comfortable with. The manager can tell when you get in a groove with a certain guy and they will keep that tandem working together.” All eyes were on Barker from the first pitch.
As Barker wound up to throw his first pitch, the seal of history was about to be broken in epic fashion. Barker managed to get each of the first two batters to ground out to shortstop, Tom Veryzer. The third out came when George Bell grounded out to first baseman, Mike Hargrove.
A rather routine trip through the top of the order became a common occurrence as the night went on. Len walks (no pun intended) us through what he felt during the early part of the game, “It started off feeling like a normal game and I was throwing nothing but fastballs early. The guys behind me made a couple of incredible plays in the first inning. As we got later in the game, I started striking out batters at a good pace.”
In the bottom of the first inning, a leadoff single by Rick Manning got the Tribe off to a good start. After second baseman, Jorge Orta, popped out to the shortstop, Mike Hargrove reached first base on an error by first baseman, Mayberry. Andre Thornton wasted no time hitting a sacrifice fly deep enough to score Manning from third, giving the Indians an early 1-0 lead. Moments later, Ron Hassey singled and the lead grew to 2-0.
Harrah ended the inning with a called third strike from Leal. The score and Indians lead was more than Barker was going to need. Barker said that the early lead helped him to relax and focus going into the second inning,”It helps out for sure. In tight games, you can make one bad pitch and lose a game. We didn’t average a lot of runs back then, so every time we got up on a team it was nice. It made it easier to pitch, but still a two run lead is not a huge lead. When you’re pitching well and have a lead like that you can get your team a win.”
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