Len Barker’s Perfect Game

If you grew up in Cleveland or Northeast Ohio in the 1980s and 90s, the story of Len Barker‘s perfect game thrown on May 15, 1981, is the stuff of myth and legend. Honestly, we didn’t have much to cheer about sports-wise until the mid-1990s, so it’s no wonder the Barker game captivated us more than it should have. Just 7,290 Indians fans watched the hapless Tribe take on the Toronto Blue Jays at old Municipal Stadium that spring day. But to hear fans talk about how “I was there” a decade or two later, you’d have thought it was a sellout, standing room only crowd. It seemed EVERYONE in Cleveland claimed to have been at the game. Like we said, we didn’t have a lot to brag about in those days, so fans naturally clung to one of the few bright spots they could find. Barker had a lackluster career, eventually retiring at age 31 in 1987 after a couple rough seasons with the Braves and Brewers. But between 1980 and 1982, he was a remarkably effective pitcher for the Indians despite an ERA in the high 3’s, winning 42 games in that stretch and leading the American League in strikeouts twice, including the strike-shortened 1981 season in which he also was an All-Star. So hats off to Mr. Perfect, Len Barker, and the 125,000 rabid fans in attendance that day who witnessed history. What is your favorite mythical moment or game from back when that fans of your favorite team still talk about to this day as if it were King Arthur pulling a sword from a stone?

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