Last Call

Hey, it's always news in baseball when the rarest of the rare happens:  a perfect game.

Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game Saturday in a 4-0 win over the Mariners in Seattle.

Only 20 other pitchers have tossed perfect games, in which no opposing batter reaches base, in Major League history, according to MLB.com.

It was the first no-hitter of the 2012 season.

Humber threw 96 pitches, 67 for strikes, and struck out nine. The last batter he faced, Brendan Ryan, nearly spoiled the perfect game when he struck out but had to be thrown out at first when the ball got past Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

Until Humber's gem, Philadelphia's Roy Halladay had the most recent perfect game, on May 29, 2010, against Florida. Oakland's Dallas Braden had the American League's most recent perfect game, on May 9, 2010, against Tampa Bay. The last White Sox pitcher to throw a perfect game was Mark Buehrle against Tampa Bay on July 23, 2009.

Pretty good if you ask me.  They play 2,000+ games in a season, and MLB's been going for over a century.  Only 21 perfect games, too.   Restores my faith in humanity, if only just a bit.