You Will Always Remember Where You Were July 28, 1994

Why July 28, 1994? Why not June 28, 2023? Because we weren't in the stands in Oakland, California last night to see the New York Yankees' Domingo Germán throw MLB's 24th perfect game in its history and the first perfect game since 2012.

We don't attend many Texas Rangers games, but the ones we do turn out to be memorable. We were in the stands for Kenny Rogers' perfect game on July 28, 1994, just the 14th perfect game at that time.

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I wrote about that experience after another rare Texas Rangers franchise highlight in 2010, the team's first World Series.

Our family was lucky in the timing of one summer game that our family chose to attend. It was perhaps the most famous game in Rangers' history (at least up to this World Series and maybe even after - we'll see). I'm talking of the perfect game pitched by Kenny Rogers on July 28, 1994. There was a sellout crowd during that first season of the beautiful new Ballpark in Arlington. My first inclination that we were witness to something magical came after three innings, when I told my young sons, "9 up and 9 down." After four innings, I said, "12 up and 12 down." By the fifth, I had to teach them the old superstition that it's bad luck to talk openly about no-hitters, so from then on we just exchanged knowing looks. By the seventh, the whole sellout home crowd was aware of what was developing. Each out was cheered loudly. By the eighth, the crowd was on its feet, cheering every strike. By the ninth, the tension and excitement was electric. When Rusty Greer, in center field, made a diving catch on a fading line drive for the first out, the crowd first caught its breath and then erupted in cheers. When the final out came, all 46,581 fans celebrated deliriously. We could talk about it again. "27 up and 27 down." To experience such an event, especially in the midst of a sellout home crowd, is indescribably exciting.

On the walk out of the stadium, I told my sons of the historic significance of what they had just witnessed. In a century of play, over tens of thousands of games, this was only the fourteenth perfect game in major league history. I told them that, even if they had season tickets for the rest of their long lives, the odds were against them seeing another. But they could always say that they witnessed this one. Although I won't be in the stands this week, here's hoping that the Rangers' first World Series brings more indelible memories for baseball fans who are lucky enough to be there.

Source: The Wheel.

So, congratulations to the fans in the stands in Oakland last night. They knew what they were witnessing. According to the story in the New York Times, "The modest crowd of 12,479 in Oakland, Calif., rose to its feet as Germán came out to start the ninth inning and chanted, “Let’s go, Yankees,” as he faced the first batter of the inning." For the opposing fans of the hated New York Yankees to do that, you just know the respect and excitement those fans felt witnessing another pitcher achieve one of the rarest feats in sports. They had the same thrill our family did on July 28, 1994.