Twenty-Seven Up and Twenty-Seven Down: The Two Perfect Games of 1880

On Fathers’ Day 1964, Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning struck out Mets pinch-hitter John Stephenson to cap off a perfect game in a 5-0 Phillies win. Not only was it Bunning’s first career perfect game, it was the first perfect game the National League saw in over eighty years, not since John Ward’s perfect game in 1880 capped off an unbelievable week in the senior circuit that saw two perfect games pitched within five days.

The date was June 12^th, 1880. The Worcester Ruby Legs were hosting the Cleveland Blues in a National League regular season game. Manager Frank Bancroft sent pitcher Lee Richmond to the mound for the home side at Worcester Driving Park Grounds, where the 700 fans in attendance would witness a baseball first. Richmond originally started his pitching career with the Boston Red Caps the year before and came to Worcester as a left-handed, curveball specialist and had signed with Worcester to help finance his schooling at nearby Brown, where he was studying to be a medical professional.

The game itself was remarkable. The next day, the Worcester Gazette called it “the best game on record.” What made the perfect game even more amazing was the fact that Richmond stayed up the entire night before at a pre-graduation party, then pitched nine innings for Brown, whom he also played for, against Yale in the morning. After the game was finished, he missed lunch and took a train directly to Worcester, where he arrived at the park 45 minutes before he threw his first pitch.

The game took only 1:26 to play and Worcester won 1-0, the lone run scoring on an unearned run, the error on the play charged to Cleveland shortstop Fred Dunlap, who sailed a throw home and allowed Worcester to score. The spot where he threw his perfect game is now marked with a plaque on the site of Becker College in Worcester. It is inscribed:

“ON JUNE 12, 1880, THE FIRST PERFECT GAME IN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL HISTORY WAS PITCHED ON THIS SITE (THE FORMER WORCESTER AGRICULTURAL FAIRGROUNDS) BY J. LEE RICHMOND OF WORCESTER AGAINST CLEVELAND IN A NATIONAL LEAGUE GAME.”

Richmond hung up his cleats five years later, after a failed comeback attempt with Cincinnati in 1886. His career record was 75-100 but he threw almost 1600 innings. However, the nine perfect innings he threw on that day in 1880 will keep his name in record books for eternity.

Five days later, on the 17^th, word of Richmond’s remarkable performance had spread across baseball circles. A 20-year-old right-hander by the name of John Montgomery Ward was starting that day for the Providence Grays, as they hosted the Buffalo Bisons. Although the future Hall-of-Famer is known more for his bat in his great career, Ward excelled as a pitcher for the first seven years of his career.

That day in Providence was just another day at the park for Ward, who amazingly started 67 of his teams’ 87 games (he came out of the bullpen in three others). Heck, on this day, he was the only pitcher on the Grays roster. Like Richmond’s twenty seven up-twenty seven down performance, not much is known about the game. The final score of the game was 5-0 for the Grays, as they recorded 13 hits off another future Hall-of-Famer, Buffalo pitcher Pud Galvin, who would later become baseball’s first 300-game winner. Interestingly enough, Galvin himself would throw a no-hitter later that season.

Here are the box scores for the two perfect games:

LEE RICHMOND’S PERFECT GAME – BOX SCORE

JOHN MONTGOMERY WARD’S PERFECT GAME – BOX SCORE