By Josh (9 Inning Know It All):
Earlier this year I was able to sit down and catch the final 7 innings of the Philip Humber perfect game against the Mariners. I was both excited to watch a perfect game and saddened as it came against my favorite team.
Then came June 8th, when I not only had the opportunity to take my daughter to her first baseball game, but to also sit and witness 9 innings of no hit ball pitched by six pitchers on the Seattle Mariners staff. Still to this day I get a little burst of adrenaline when I talk about it.
Today, for me, was maybe even more exciting. I have been a Felix Hernandez fan since he was first called to the major league team and today watching the final 3 innings of his perfect game was extremely exciting. No I didn’t stand up and cheer when the final out was recorded (I was at work watching the game on half of my computer while I continued working on a Social Media project for my job). However, I did send out 30 text messages updating every baseball fan I could think of on my phone, posted like 15 tweets and happened to mention on Facebook every out that Felix recorded.
A friend of mine was at the game and this is what he had to say. “You could tell that Felix had it going around the 5th. By the last two innings everyone was on their feet, texting all their friends and wondering how many people would see it live. We didn’t say perfect game to each other but knew it was going to happen. Witnessing this was unbelievable,” Geoff Roy.
I’ve seen pitchers like Randy Johnson, Tim Lincecum and others pitch live but no one has ever gotten me as excited to watch a game on TV or in person like Felix. Every time he takes the mound it feels like a perfect game is coming. His 1 and 2 hitters feel like perfect games because of how well he dominates hitters and I have to say that today’s perfect game was more than that. There wasn’t any perfect game saving catches that needed to be made. The hitters weren’t able to hit the ball hard enough off of Felix to make that necessary. Felix just flat out dominated and that is why he is the best pitcher in Major League baseball.
Oh and by the way he is 26. Yup, he is still 4 years on the good side of 30. Felix said he wanted to throw a perfect game for the fans. Well he did it, and now he can go out and throw a couple more for his mom, his kids and heck even one for himself. This is Felix’s first no-hitter/perfect game; I really doubt it will be his last.
Long live the King