Sometimes Perfect Isn't Perfect, Making it More Perfect

Aloha, everybody, 

Summer is creepin' up on us here in LA, as the temperature rises and boils away the memories of our wettest rainy season in years. 

For many of us in the blogosphere, our hobby is all about memory and perfection. The cardboard we chase is akin to our attempts at holding on to scraps of our past, and we are always trying to fill in the blanks, chasing perfection in our personal collections. 

Perhaps that's why I love baseball so much. Baseball is wrapped in memory and the pursuit of perfection. Thus, my pursuit of the Perfect Games Project. It's my attempt to collect the cards (in the respective year) of every battery of pitcher and catcher for the 23 perfect games in baseball's history.

Tim, one of my readers, sent me a batch of cards that brought my  pursuit closer to perfection. As if that wasn't enough, he included something that I didn't even know existed. 

Leading off is El Presidente, in photos produced with two different exposures, making it look as though he wore two different colored unis...

Nevertheless, both are great shots of his pitch coming right at ya. Here's a third shot of Martinez in '91, his year of perfection. This time at Wrigley...

This tribute card reminds me that Martinez threw his perfect game against my Dodgers...

Catcher Ron Hassey was Martinez's battery mate, but I don't have a card for him yet. 

However, that was Hassey's SECOND complete game. He caught his first as a Cleveland Indian, ten years earlier. Tim took care of that battery - along with that something extra I mentioned earlier. 

Memory is a strange thing, often bringing us comfort and nostalgia. Partly because we don't always remember the events as they actually occurred. Memory is tricky like that. Different people will remember the same event differently. 

This 1982 Fleer card erroneously credits Bo Diaz as Barker's catcher that day. I wonder how many people think it was Diaz who caught that game because of this card?

I wonder if Diaz sometimes remembers himself as the perfect game catcher? 

Memory is a strange thing, but I'll always remember it was reader Tim who brought me a few steps closer to perfection with these cards. THANKS, Tim! 

Aloha!