CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s been more than 42 years since Len Barker authored Cleveland’s most recent perfect game when he dominated the Blue Jays in a 3-0 win at Municipal Stadium. But after Yankees righty Domingo German achieved perfection Wednesday in Oakland, Barker said his first reaction was that it’s about time another pitcher added his name to the list.
“It’s nice to have somebody else in the club with us,” Barker said.
Addie Joss pitched Cleveland’s first perfect game on Oct. 2, 1908, at League Park, and Felix Hernandez tossed the last perfecto in the majors nearly 4,000 days ago. But Barker has waited more than 15,300 days for a pitcher to follow his lead and retire 27 consecutive batters in a Cleveland uniform. He still gets text messages and calls whenever a Cleveland pitcher enters the late innings of a game with zeroes on the scoreboard.
“Especially when it’s one of the Guardians or when they were the Indians,” Barker said “When there’s a guy getting close to doing it, I’m pulling for him. I’ve been waiting for one of our guys to do it for a while. It’s not easy.”
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German accomplished perfection on just 99 pitches, and in a season where Major League Baseball has instituted several new rules aimed at promoting offense and limiting the way teams play defense behind a pitcher. But Barker said every pitcher is different, and changes intended to speed up games wouldn’t necessarily make things harder or easier on pitchers from his era.
“A lot of guys work fast, so a pitch clock would never bother them,” Barker said. “It would’ve affected some guys that were slower where they throw a pitch, they walk around the mound, then they get back on it, they take forever. Kind of like Grover (Mike Hargrove) did when he was batting.”
Unlike the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who get notoriously protective of their perfect season whenever an NFL team comes close to matching the feat, Barker said the mantle of Cleveland’s most recent no-hitter/perfect game is one that he would gladly pass on to any Guardians pitcher who can achieve it.
“Oh, definitely,” Barker said. “I’d be happy for him for sure. I’d even celebrate for him, too.”
But wearing that crown carries with it eccentricities and whims that no pitcher thinks about before taking the mound. Basically, German has no idea what he’s in for during the remainder of his playing days and beyond, Barker said.
“Everybody will be calling him ‘Mr. Perfect,’ and he’ll be signing baseballs with his catcher and whatever his date was and all that,” Barker said. “It’s a tremendous feeling.”
Barker figures German has already been contacted by the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and they will certainly hang his uniform and hat there as part of their displays.
“So, he is in the Hall of Fame already,” Barker said. “It’s pretty exciting. Only to have 24 guys that do it. That’s in all of baseball. That’s quite an accomplishment.”
The notoriety German now has will stay with him for the rest of his days, and he will carry it with him wherever he goes. Barker said fans will randomly tell him different stories of where they were and what they were doing at the time of his perfect game.
“They were in college, or some of them were bowling,” Barker said. “I’ve even had some ladies tell me that they were in labor watching the game and didn’t want to deliver the baby until the last out of the game. So, it’s a lot of fun to share it with people.”
But no matter how many people bring up that misty May evening in 1981 when they encounter Barker, the burly right-hander never tires of hearing their stories. He figures that in time, neither will German.
“It’s a great thing that happened, and it was something great back then,” Barker said. “That’s when Cleveland was the ‘Mistake on the Lake,’ and it was a great thing for the city and for my teammates. They could share in something like that. It wasn’t just for the team; it was the whole community.”
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