About this item
The first in-depth look at baseballs nirvana -- a lyrical history of pitching perfection. There have been only fourteen perfect games pitched in the modern era of baseball the great Cy Young fittingly hurled the first, in 1904, and David Cone pitched the most recent, in 1999. In between, some great pitchers -- Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Jim Bunning, and Don Larsen in the World Series -- performed the feat, as did some mediocre ones, like Len Barker and the little-known Charlie Robertson. Fourteen in 150,000 games The odds are staggering. When it does happen, however, the whole baseball world marvels at the combination of luck and skill, and the pitcher himself gains a kind of baseball immortality. Five years ago, Michael Coffey witnessed such an event at Yankee Stadium, and the experience prompted this expansive look at the history of these unsurpassable pitching performances.
About the Author
Michael Coffey, formerly the co-editorial director of Publishers Weekly, is the author of several books of poems, a book about baseball's perfect games, and another about Irish immigration to America--which together paint a fairly good portrait of his central interests. Recently, he has begun publishing his fiction, and his new book, The Business of Naming Things, is being published in early 2015. He lives with his wife in Manhattan and in upstate New York, where he was raised. For more information, visit www.michaelcoffeyauthor.com.
