 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "David Wells' perfect game" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Wells in 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | May 17, 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Yankee Stadium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | New York City, New York | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Television | MSG Network | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Jim Kaat (play-by-play) Ken Singleton (color commentary) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio | WABC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | John Sterling (play-by-play)Michael Kay (color commentary) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On May 17, 1998,David Wells of theNew York Yankees pitched the 15thperfect game inMajor League Baseball history and the second in team history. Pitching against theMinnesota Twins atYankee Stadium inThe Bronx in front of 49,820 fans in attendance, Wells retired all 27 batters he faced.[1] The game took 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete, from 1:36 PM ET to 4:16 PM ET. Wells claimed in a 2001 interview withBryant Gumbel on HBO'sReal Sports that he threw the perfect game while beinghung over, calling it a "raging, skull-rattling" hangover.[2][3][failed verification]Jimmy Fallon claimed in a 2018 interview withSeth Meyers that he and Wells had attended aSaturday Night Live after-party until 5:30 A.M. the morning of the game.[4] In an interview, Wells also mentioned having partied with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers the night before.[5] However, there was no new episode ofSaturday Night Live the previous night, as the season finale had aired the week prior;[6][circular reference] additionally, Fallon wouldn't join the cast ofSaturday Night Live until that fall while Meyers wouldn't join until 2001.
Wells' perfect game was the 245thno-hitter in MLB history and the tenth no-hitter in Yankees history. It was the first regular-season perfect game pitched by a Yankee; the franchise's previous perfect game was thrown byDon Larsen during the1956 World Series. By coincidence, Wells graduated from the same high school as Larsen -Point Loma High School inSan Diego,California.[7] The previous perfect game in MLB history was nearly four years prior, whenKenny Rogers of theTexas Rangers pitched a perfect game against theCalifornia Angels atThe Ballpark In Arlington on July 28, 1994.
Wells' perfect game was the first Yankee no-hitter sinceDwight Gooden's against theSeattle Mariners in May 1996. Wells' performance tied the record for franchises with most perfect games. At the time, theCleveland Indians were the only other team to have two perfect games;David Cone added a third perfect game to Yankees history, breaking the record in July 1999.
Three months later, on September 1, Wells took a perfect game into the seventh inning in a game against theOakland Athletics, but he gave up a two-out single toJason Giambi to end his bid for an unprecedented second perfect game. Wells ended up with a two-hit shutout as the Yankees won the game, 7-0.[8]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Twins (18–24) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| New York Yankees (28–9) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| WP:David Wells (5–1) LP:LaTroy Hawkins (2–4) Home runs: MIN: None NYY:Bernie Williams (3) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BATTING
FIELDING
|
BATTING
BASERUNNING
|
