The First White Sox Perfect Game

A month ago, I hunted down the Chicago Tribune’s account of Charles Robertson’s perfect game in April, 1922. He threw it at Tiger Stadium, against Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, and eight other Tigers (the last batter, Johnny Bassler, was a pinch-hitter). At the time, I obviously had no idea of what Mark Buehrle would do today: I was just curious. But now that the Pale Hose have their second perfect game, I’d like to celebrate by presenting some of how the Tribune told the story back in 1922:  

"Fully 25,000 fans were packed into the arena to witness this thriller. At the start they were anything but favorable toward the lean Texan. They howled at him and booed him. The Tigers themselves tried to break him down by unwarranted complaints that he was practicing some illegal trick. Undaunted, Robby kept right on going, and when it was all over the fans showed their appreciation of his work by carrying him off the field.

Despite the startling results attained by Robertson, the game itself was not particularly spectacular. The Texan’s mates were not called upon to perform hair raising feats to keep the Tygers away from first base. Robby was so good that ordinary fielding was all he needed.

What made Robby the pitcher he was today, was control. He shot fast ones, slow ones, and hooks right through the spots where the other fellows didn’t like ‘em.

As a sample of his effectiveness, it might be mentioned that only seven balls were hit on the ground. Fourteen were slammed into the air, and six of the twenty-seven batters took their medicine in the form of strikeouts.

Only six balls were driven into the outfield.

The fact that the arbiter could find no fault with Robby didn't satisfy the Tygers. Heilmann continued to "wolf" throughout the game. Once Cobb even went out to first base to see whether Sheely's glove did not conceal coloring matter. It didn't.

Later, the irrepressible Tyrus inspected all parts of Robertson's uniform. He was foiled again,  but even after it was all over he still insisted there was something wrong. To a spectator it sounded like the squawk of a trimmed sucker. . . ."

The White Sox scored two runs in the second, and as the game went along, the Detroit fans "howled at [Robertson] when they rose en masse for the lucky seventh, but when he got by that point without results, sentiment changed. He suddenly became a hero, and when Bassler, a pinch hitter, sent a fly to Mostil for the concluding out, Robby got an ovation that an athlete seldom is granted on a foreign field."

The Tribune also paid a service to history by presenting the play-by-play account of Charlie Robertson’s perfection in its notes on his game.