Free Republic

In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched perhaps the best game ever — and lost BOB DVORCHAK In his later years with the Pirates, after he was the pitching coach for the 1979 champions and before the baseball bureaucracy no longer recognized his game, Harvey Haddix reflected on the most extraordinary game ever pitched.

Fifty years ago Harvey Haddix threw 12 perfect innings—more than any pitcher before or since—and then lost. How the unassuming lefty's brilliant effort turned bittersweet. _______ HARVEY HADDIX stepped onto the rain-softened mound and exhaled. It was May 26, 1959, nearing 10 o'clock on a muggy night in half-empty Milwaukee County Municipal Stadium. Dark clouds loomed overhead in the windswept sky, lightning flickered in the distance. There were two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates lefthander tugged at the bill of his black cap, glared at his catcher from underneath and nodded. Not one...

I will never forget that night in late May of 1959................................. my mother was a big baseball fan and so were my brother and I. We were all sitting around late that night listening to the Pirate game on the radio in Pittsburgh................. as thunder was heard and lightening seen in the sky in the late innings at old County Stadium in Milwaukee. It was the night of (imo) baseball’s greatest pitching performance --- 12 perfect innings of pitching. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/05261959.shtml****Thirty-six consecutive batters were retired by Harvey Haddix before the thirteenth inning — when it all ended on an error, an...