One of the coolest things that a pitcher can achieve in baseball is an immaculate inning. What is an immaculate inning, you ask? Well, an immaculate inning is simple: nine pitches, all strikes, three strikeouts. It's one of the rarest occurrences in baseball history; it's only happened 80 times in baseball history!
Coincidentally, the four pitchers who have pitched multiple immaculate innings currently reside in the Hall of Fame: Lefty Grove, Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson. No one has ever pitched more than two immaculate innings in his career, except for Koufax, who has three immaculate innings on his resumé, and Ryan is the only one to do it in multiple leagues. His first perfect inning came on April 19, 1968 with the Mets and the second came on July 9, 1972 with the Angels. Other notable pitchers who have pitched immaculate innings include Rube Waddell, Jim Bunning, Ron Guidry, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Felix Hernandez, Dazzy Vance, Robin Roberts, Bob Gibson, Bruce Sutter, and Orel Hershiser.
How cool would it be to throw an immaculate inning? I would be jumping out of my seat if I did that in a video game, let alone on an actual baseball diamond. Thanks for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. Check back soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."
And, if you'd like to read about other great pitching feats in baseball history, please check out my book, Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers.
Nice job Matt! You seem as excited about baseball as I was at your age in the 70's. Perhaps I'll check in occasionally and see what you're writing. I've recently began a Historical Fiction Fantasy about two of my loves...baseball and firefighting. If it ever becomes a reality you might enjoy it. Until then, keep writing young man. Rick
ReplyDelete