LOTD: Mark Buehrle's Perfect Game in First Hand Accounts and Video

Midwest Sports FansJul 24, 2009

I don’t want to hear one word about the fact that the last five posts we’ve published have been about Mark Buehrle’s perfect game. Anyone who does not understand why I am still gushing about the performance and can’t stop writing about it...well, I just think you don’t get it.

There have been only 18 perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball (16 in the modern era).

Think about that for a second. There are so few amazing feats rarer than a perfect game. And what are the odds that your favorite pitcher of all-time will be one of the 18 to throw one? I’m seriously thinking about changing the name of this site to Midwest Buehrle Fans, at least for today.

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Anyway, I’ve done enough writing about Buehrle.

I listened to the fifth through eighth innings on my phone, then realized that MLB.com was allowing free live look-ins and switched over there for the ninth inning.

As I mentioned yesterday, my boss had to delay a conference call because I was screaming and jumping up and down in my office after Dewayne’s Rise. Then, everyone converged around my computer to witness baseball history.

But nothing would have compared to actually being there, which is why today’s Links of the Day are going to focus on some firsthand accounts of Buehrle’s perfect game from some of our friends in the Windy City blogosphere.

I enjoy Dallas, but days like yesterday make me wish I was back closer to Comiskey. Luckily, there are plenty of people who are, and who shared their experiences of yesterday’s game.

You’ll Say It, but I Really Was at Mark Buehrle’s Perfect Game—(Zoner Sports)

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We hung around for a while after the game, exchanged high-fives and fist bumps with other fans, hooted and hollered and soaked it in. As I waited on the ramp for my friend who was taking a post-game wizz, it was cool to watch all the fans leaving the park and their different expressions. My favorite was the guy with the goofy grin on his face who just kept shaking his head...because I was doing the same thing.
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Mark Buehrle Throws a Perfect Game; I Was There—(Rickhouse at Tremendous Upside Potential)

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This has forever cemented Buehrle as my favorite White Sox player ever and second favorite athlete of all-time, only behind MJ. Derrick Rose, Jay Cutler, Gordon Beckham, Hester, Urlacher, whoever else, good luck gunnin’ for No. 3.
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If I had to be one baseball player, I cannot think of anyone I’d rather chose [sic] than Buehrle. Championship ring, World Series save, no-no, perfect game. Super-millionaire. Real cool dude. Try and top that, please. Best of all, he’ll probably be out of the game at 32 – on his own terms – so he can kick it with his wife and kids. Mark Buehrle is the man.
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Here is video from TUP of the crowd's reaction as Buehrle seals the deal:

When Mark Buehrle Has a Perfect Game through Eight, I Go to Chili’s—(Bobby Stompy at Tremendous Upside Potential)

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Buehrle K’d Michel Hernandez for his second-to-last out. A ‘he gone’ erupted from Hawk in a tone that I don’t think will ever be replicated or topped again. We witnessed a perfect game, a perfect catch, and the perfect ‘he gone’ all in the same game. Things do come in threes.
And that last out. Whoo. Hawk* damn near turned Alexei’s first name into a prayer verse. Not too far from his “Crede!” call for Buehrle’s no-no in ‘07. But this one was bigger. A perfect game automatically makes it bigger, yes, but there’s also the first place implications. 2007 was a season of individual milestones, but it never led to anything bigger. If anything, it simply served as a lesson and reaffirmed to fans that playoffs matter more.
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If anyone else can find more firsthand accounts from bloggers, please link in the comments. I want to relish yesterday’s game for as long as possible...which means until the pivotal series with the Tigers begins this afternoon with the first game of the double-dip.

Update: Here is another really good story I just found.

Mark Buehrle Is Just Like You, but Perfect—(Jon Greenberg, ESPN Chicago)

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How does Mark Buehrle do it?

Look at him. He’s a monster-truck-driving, deer-hunting, self-proclaimed country boy who strains to hit 90 on the radar gun and was picked in the 38th round of the 1998 amateur baseball draft.
Did you even know there were that many rounds in a draft? Heck, Ron Schueler, the former White Sox general manager who selected the left-handed Buehrle, took his own daughter in the 43rd round in 1993.

No one could have predicted Mark Buehrle’s career.
…
“In the coaches’ room everyone was in tears,” Guillen said. “One thing, it couldn’t happen to a better guy.”

Guillen recalled Buehrle’s first no-hitter, when he wondered how a guy who pitches to contact and prides himself on working fast could get so lucky.

“He’s one of the most underrated pitchers in the American League in the last 10 years,” Guillen said.
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