Touch 'Em All: Ted Barrett is the perfect umpire
If you want to be perfect, Ted Barrett is your guy. And add Brian Runge. Barrett was behind the plate late Wednesday night when San Francisco Giants righthander Matt Cain twirled his 10-0, perfecto against the Houston Astros. He also was the plate umpire when David Cone threw his perfect game for the New York Yankees in a 6-0 win over the Montreal Expos on July 18, 1999.
If you want to be perfect, Ted Barrett is your guy. And add Brian Runge.
Barrett was behind the plate late Wednesday night when San Francisco Giants righthander Matt Cain twirled his 10-0, perfecto against the Houston Astros. He also was the plate umpire when David Cone threw his perfect game for the New York Yankees in a 6-0 win over the Montreal Expos on July 18, 1999.
But if you really want to be certain, make sure Runge is on the crew. Runge, who was at third for Cain's gem, was behind the plate when Kevin Millwood and five Seattle relievers combined for a 1-0 no-hit win over the Dodgers last week - and for Philip Humber's perfect game for the White Sox against the Mariners April 21.
Barrett compared Cone and Cain: "Cone had the big, big back-door breaking ball. Turns out none of them had ever faced Cone before, so they were a little more baffled by Cone's stuff. With Cain throwing the ball where he wanted to, location was awesome."
As for Runge, he did his part in Wednesday's game, obeying the baseball tradition of not mentioning a no-no (would that be a no-no no-no?). He refused to acknowledge Houston third-base coach Dave Clark's comments in the seventh, and turned away from third baseman Chris Johnson in the eighth.
Adding an asterisk?
If the Mets get their way, Cain's achievement on Wednesday could be joined by a no-hitter.
New York knuckleballer R.A. Dickey gave up only one hit in the Mets' 9-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, a two-out infield single in the first by B.J. Upton, which third sacker David Wright was unable to field cleanly bare-handed.
The Mets have filed a formal request to have the official scorer's ruling changed. Skipper Terry Collins expects a verdict Friday, but he's not holding out much hope.
"We're just taking a shot," he said. "What the heck?"
Hey, a win is a win
Julien Leparoux, who was replaced as Union Rags' jockey after losses in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, got one back for the region, in a way.
Philly Ace, with Leparoux up, edged Yankee Fortune by a neck in a four-way photo finish to win the feature race on Thursday at Belmont.
Yankees fans will no doubt ask for a stewards ruling.
But the way things are going, we'll take that as an interleague W for the Phils.
We're No. 1
South Philly, meet South London. As fans of the English soccer club Millwall chant at their docklands stadium: "No one likes us, we don't care."
Seems Citizens Bank Park fans were the choice as the worst in a Men's Journal survey of 100 major-leaguers, with 36 percent of players rating Phillies fans as the most likely to make them cry.
San Francisco was second, with 22 percent (represent, West Coast!), while New York, despite having two teams and a lot of practice, could only muster 12 percent.
Nailing the story
From the IronPigs' game against the Durham Bulls in Allentown, Jake Kaplan of MLB.com tweets: "Play just stopped for a minute here at Lehigh Valley, as a couple of IronPigs dug up a hammer from the baseline near third base. Huh?"
Shhh! They were trying to build momentum.