On May 17, 1998, just three days before his 35th birthday, David Wells was perfect and pitched the 15th perfect game in MLB history. He blanked the Minnesota Twins 4-0 and became just the second Yankee pitcher to throw a perfecto, the first to do it in the regular season.
In front of 49,820 fans on hand for a Beanie Baby giveaway, including a 10-year-old Dellin Betances, Wells retired all 27 batters he faced in 2 hours and 40 minutes. In classic Boomer fashion, he claims that he was “half-drunk with bloodshot eyes, monster breath, and a raging, skull-rattling hangover,” and got just an hour of sleep.
As the game progressed and his teammates realized what was unfolding, the superstitious group shunned him. Darryl Strawberry got up and walked away when Boomer sat down next to him, and his catcher Jorge Posada avoided him altogether. The man that broke the silence was Wells’ good friend David Cone. In a way only Coney can, he calmly took off his sunglasses, acted as if it was just another game and said, ”I think it’s time to break out the knuckleball.” Wells laughed and continued on with his perfect afternoon.
In a twist of fate that could only happen in Yankee lore, Wells attended the same high school (Point Loma High School in San Diego) as Don Larsen. Larsen was the first Yankee to throw a perfect game when he did it in the 1956 World Series, which remains the only one thrown in postseason play.
It would be just a one year wait for Yankee fans to witness another perfecto, as Cone would throw one of his own on July 18, 1999.
”He won’t forget it. He’ll think about it every day of his life, just like I do.” Don Larsen
