For Kenny Rogers’ perfect game, every Rangers’ play had to fall perfectly into place
Editor’s note: The latest in a countdown of the most memorable moments in Globe Life Park history. The Texas Rangers will play their final game there Sept. 29 before moving into Globe Life Field next season.
There have been many remarkable, landmark moments on the pitcher’s mound for the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park the past 25 years, but Kenny Rogers’ perfect game is unquestionably the greatest of them all.
After all, he was perfect that night on July 28, 1994, against the then California Angels.
But for a perfect game to occur, it takes more than just the pitcher bringing his best. There have only been 21 since 1900. Everything has to fall perfectly into place, including most importantly, the defense.
Rogers got that from all over the diamond, including Rusty Greer’s perfection-saving, diving catch on a sinking liner in center field for the first out in the 9th.
Greer, who took part in a Rangers’ luncheon at the Live! By Loews hotel Friday afternoon celebrating the All-Globe Life Park Rangers team, admitted that with a perfect game on the line, no fielder is hoping the ball comes to them. Greer made two catches in the 9th, including the final out. He had five in the game.
Greer was only 50 percent joking about not wanting to get the baseball.
“In a perfect game, you certainly don’t want to be the guy who has a chance to make an error to mess it up,” he said. “If you really look over the course of 27 outs, there are maybe a half dozen plays that aren’t routine and take a little bit extra to make the perfect game happen.”
That was true that night in Arlington. Besides Greer’s diving catch, shortstop Esteban Beltre made a nifty stop up the middle. Third baseman Dean Palmer made a split-second adjustment on a bad hop for one of three assists he had in the game. First baseman Will Clark made a long stretch to receive a throw and left-fielder Juan Gonzalez made a running catch in the gap on the hardest ball the Angels hit in the game.
“I didn’t know until the seventh inning,” said Hall of Fame catcher Pudge Rodriguez. “When the fans started getting excited on every pitch. And everyone was leaving Kenny (alone) on one side of the dugout.”
Rodriguez, who had one of three home runs in the first three innings to spot Rogers and the Rangers a 4-0 lead, said everything has to go right for a perfect game. The stars have to align. Jose Canseco had the other two homers.
“Everybody made plays and was at the right place at the right time. That’s part of baseball,” he said. “Everybody is in the perfect place during the game.”
Rogers, who was the first left-hander in AL history to throw a perfect game, threw 98 pitches and went to a three-ball count to just six batters.
It was the first year of the ballpark and Texas led the AL West by two games. That helped lure 46,581 out for a Thursday night game.
It was the 12th perfect game in history and it came three years to the day after the previous perfect game by the Montreal Expos’ Dennis Martinez in 1991. The next one didn’t come until the Yankees; David Wells did it in 1998.
There have been nine thrown since Rogers did it, the last by the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez on Aug. 15, 2012. There were three thrown in ‘12, the most in a single season. In fact, the two thrown in 2010 is the only other time there has been more than one in a season.
The seven-year drought is the longest since MLB went 13 years between perfect games from 1968 to 1981.
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 8:23 PM.
