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Ron Christensen returns today recalling one of the greatest games ever pitched: Harvey Haddix’s gem from May 29, 1959, in which he pitched 12 perfect innings, something never done before or since. Some of our senior readers (like me!) are old enough to remember the game. What makes it even more historic is that Harvey didn’t get credit for a perfect game or a no-hitter…he had to settle for a loss! Check out Ron’s essay. I think you’ll enjoy it. -GL

Harvey Haddix and the “Imperfect” Perfect game

“Not a day goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me about that game.  I think I got more notoriety from it because I lost.” -Harvey Haddix, years later reflecting on his historic game

Legendary television sportscaster Jim McKay called it ‘the agony of defeat.’  Former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti said that ‘baseball will break your heart.’  Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix can identify all too well with both sentiments.  He might even be considered the poster-child of heartbreak and agonizing defeat on a baseball diamond, at least as it pertains to one particular ballgame in May of 1959.  For on the evening of the 26th, on a comfortable night at County Stadium in Milwaukee four days before Memorial Day, Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game for twelve innings…and lost.  How is that possible?  I’d answer ‘barely,’ especially given the circumstances lining up to reduce the already insurmountable odds against it.

Despite pitching one of the greatest games in baseball history, the day didn’t start out too well for Haddix.  The Pirates had taken a morning flight to Milwaukee, which didn’t offer much chance to rest before game time.  Even worse, Haddix was suffering from the flu.  He complained of feeling terrible, and said that throughout the game and his masterful pitching performance, he had to continually take throat lozenges to keep from coughing.  Whatever the effect of the flu on Haddix, it didn’t spread to his arm.

The Pirates didn’t arrive in Milwaukee with their full ‘A-Team’ as outfielder Roberto Clemente was nursing an injury, and shortstop Dick Groat and first baseman Ted Kluszewski were out of the lineup.  The Braves on the other hand were locked and loaded, with a lineup that included future Hall of Fame power hitters Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, and a not-too-shabby supporting cast of Joe Adcock and Wes Covington.  Matthews would lead the major leagues in home runs that year with 46, with Adcock adding 38 of his own, one shy of Aaron’s 39.  Covington, a rookie in 1956, would hit 45 home runs over the next two seasons.  The Braves were two time defending National League champions, and entered the game with a team batting average of .290.

And if all of that wasn’t enough to thwart a perfect game, the Braves were stealing signs from Pirates catcher, Smokey Burgess.  Burgess wasn’t able to crouch low when he caught, so the signs he gave to Haddix were easily seen from the Braves bullpen using binoculars.  Haddix threw only two pitches – a fastball and a curve.  When a fastball was called for, the bullpen pitchers would position a towel for the batter to see.  For breaking pitches, the towel was out of sight.  This seeming advantage didn’t prove advantageous at all, as Braves pitcher Bob Buhl recalled, saying, “Harvey had such marvelous movement and changes of speed that night that it didn’t matter if the hitter knew what was coming or not!”

Despite the odds, Haddix soldiered on.  And he was perfect.  Through 12 innings that night, Haddix threw an economical 104 pitches, allowing no batter to reach base.  The Pirates players knew what they were witnessing, and were squirming in silence each time Haddix would exit the mound.  At the end of each inning, Pirates Manager Danny Murtaugh would ask Haddix if he could go another, and each time Haddix responded, “I’m ok.”  Pirates closer Elroy Face would typically leave the bench for the bullpen after the sixth inning, but later said “I never went to the bullpen.  I stayed in the dugout so I could watch!”  After the eighth inning, Pirates radio broadcaster Bob Prince exclaimed “Don’t go away folks!  We are on the verge of baseball history!”  Then, after the ninth inning, Prince excitedly shouted “Harvey Haddix has pitched a perfect no hit, no run game!”

Marcia Haddix, Harvey’s wife, was at home on their farm in Ohio while Harvey was in Milwaukee with the Pirates.  During the game she received a phone call from her mother-in-law to tell her to turn on the radio, that her husband was pitching a perfect game.  She said she ran around the house turning on all the radios but the reception of Pittsburg’s KDKA was so poor she couldn’t get a signal.  Finally she got in the car and found that pointing it in a certain direction enabled her to receive reception and hear the game.  She was excited for her husband, but would later say that he was just trying to win the game, that he didn’t go out there to lose.  Marcia remembered the game as an important moment in her husband’s career, but said it wasn’t the defining one.  She recalled that Harvey always said the best part of his career was winning two games in the 1960 World Series – one being Game Seven with the famous walk-off home run by Bill Mazerowski in the ninth inning to beat the Yankees at Forbes Field. 

But in the end, the number 13 would prove unlucky for Haddix.  Felix Mantilla led off the bottom of the 13th with a ground ball to third baseman Don Hoak.  “About a five hopper” Haddix recalled.  Hoak gloved the ball but threw it in the dirt to first baseman Rocky Nelson, who couldn’t come up with it.  Error to Hoak, Mantilla on first, perfect game over.  Power hitter Eddie Matthews executed a sacrifice bunt, moving Mantilla to second.  With one out and first base open, Haddix intentionally walked Hank Aaron to set up a double-play.  Then, in what was Haddix’s only mistake of the night, he hung a breaking ball to Joe Adcock who proceeded to hit it over the fence in right center.  A walk-off 3-0 win for the Braves, and with that, Harvey Haddix lost not only his perfect game, but the game itself. 

Aaron assumed the game was over once Mantilla crossed the plate.  In the excitement, he rounded second base, then ran across the pitcher’s mound toward the Braves dugout. In reviewing the play, National League president Warren Giles ruled that Aaron was out for leaving the base path, and reduced Adcock’s home run to a double.  New final score:  Braves 1, Pirates 0.

But maybe the worst was yet to come.  In 1991, Major League Baseball amended the definition of a no-hitter to “a game in which a pitcher or pitchers complete a game of nine innings or more without allowing a hit.”  With this definitional change, Haddix’s masterpiece was purged from the record books.  Haddix’s response?  “It’s okay.  I know what I did.”

In his next start on June 2nd at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Haddix received a standing ovation from the crowd, and responded with a complete game 3-0 shutout over the Cardinals.  He was an instant celebrity, and was even invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, an invitation he declined, stating he had to pitch the following day.

As remarkable as Haddix’s performance was that night, let’s not overlook Lew Burdette, the Braves pitcher who turned in a pretty masterful performance of his own.  Burdette, the 1957 World Series MVP, pitched all 13 innings, scattering 12 hits and allowing no runs in coming away with the win.  After the game, Burdette called the Pirates clubhouse to speak with Haddix.  He said,

“I told Harvey I realize I got what I wanted – a win – but I’d really give it up because you pitched the greatest game that’s ever been pitched in the history of baseball.  It’s a damned shame you had to lose.” 

The following day Burdette asked the Braves for a raise, citing that he was the winning pitcher in the greatest game ever pitched.

There have been 24 perfect games pitched in major league history, and each of those was 9 innings long.  Haddix’s gem of 12 perfect innings is not one of them, but still truly remains one for the ages.

Ron Christensen

REFERENCES:

1. Wikipedia: Harvey Haddix’s Near Perfect Game
2. Baseball Almanac: Harvey Haddix Near Perfect Game Box Score; Fast Facts
3. com: He Threw A Perfect Game For 12 Innings . . . And Lost, by Manny Randhawa
4. Baseball Hall of Fame: Perfect Memories, by Craig Muder
5. Baseball History Comes Alive: Harvey Haddix Near Perfect Game – One For The Record Books,  by Gary Livacari
6. Weather Underground: Milwaukee Weather History
7. Baseball Reference: Wes Covington
8. org: May 26, 1959 – Harvey Haddix Pitches 12 Perfect Innings, Loses In 13th, by Mark Miller

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