by The crowd went wild with excitement after the last out of the perfect game! Lenny Barker had just pitched only the tenth perfect game in Major League Baseball history. His teammates stormed the field to greet him in celebration. How did the perfect gamer celebrate? Len describes a pretty low-key celebration, “We went back to my condo back in Parma and we celebrated for a while. We were on the game of the week the next day, which was an early day game, so some of us celebrated longer than others.” It took a few days to the great accomplishment of the game to sink in for Barker, “It pretty much set in a couple of days later when I started thinking about it. Everyone was waiting to see if I could do it again. It was never in the back of my mind, I believe the next game I threw a three hitter only to lose 3-0 because all three hits were solo home runs. So it was back to reality real quick because that is what the major leagues does to you.”
Out of the 104 pitches that Barker threw that perfect night, 84 of them were for strikes. I would add a few recap sentences about Barker’s pitching command here and then lead into the following quote “I always had a good curveball and threw it hard, but that night I was able to throw it over the plate with ease. I just had such good control over it and Hassey and I were able to realize it quickly. That night we threw more curveballs, I would normally throw mostly fastballs. It was just knowing that when you get something working well that you don’t change it. They were trying to hit the ball because every strikeout was swinging. My concentration was unbelievable that night and confidence high from having a good season thus far.
The whole staff was having a great year until the work stoppage. That night belonged to my curveball, because I could throw it anywhere and they weren’t hitting it.” Barker only made one adjustment to his pitching during the game, “I threw one changeup that Mayberry hit for a line drive out, so we got rid of that pitch and stuck to the fastball and curve.” How did
Barker feel after Rick Manning caught the last out and he had achieved the perfect game? “All the air was sucked out of my body as I took a big sigh of relief that it was over. I felt like a 1000 pound weight was lifted off my shoulder. It was one of the best feelings I have ever had in my life, besides having my children. It was a tremendous feeling having all my teammates celebrate with me. In the clubhouse, they rolled out a whole lane of towels leading up to my locker filled with champagne.
It was a great feeling not just for me but for my teammates as we all celebrated. Everyone was so much a part of it back then because of the loyalty from the city and players. Cleveland had so many negative things said about them that it was nice to have our team in first place, then the perfect game to go along with it. It was something that hadn’t been done in a long time in Cleveland. For it to happen in Cleveland was great for the city and everyone as we all shared in it. It wasn’t just my game, it was everyone’s!”
