Cy Young Throws the First Perfect Game of the Modern Era

On May 5, 1904, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw a perfect game against the Philadelphia Athletics at Huntington Avenue Grounds, retiring all 27 batters in a 3-0 victory. It was the first perfect game in the modern era, the period beginning with the establishment of the American League in 1901.

Young was 37 years old. He had already won over 400 games in his career. The idea that a pitcher deep into his late thirties could achieve perfection tells you something about both Young's durability and the nature of dead-ball-era pitching, where workhorses threw complete games as a matter of routine.

Rube Waddell, Philadelphia's ace and one of the great strikeout artists of the era, started for the Athletics and pitched well enough to win most games. He allowed just three runs. But Young was flawless. He threw with pinpoint control, inducing weak contact and relying on his defense. The final out came on a grounder to short.

Young's perfect game was part of a larger stretch of dominance that borders on absurd. He threw 24 consecutive hitless innings during this period, a record that includes the perfect game and extends into his surrounding starts. The streak began on April 25 and didn't end until May 11, when a single finally broke through.

He finished the 1904 season 26-16 with a 1.97 ERA. The award that now bears his name, given annually to each league's best pitcher, wouldn't be created until 1956, the year after his death. Young won 511 games in his career, a record that will never be broken, and this perfect game sits near the top of a staggering list of accomplishments.