The rich, poignant tales of major league baseball's most hard-luck
fraternity--the pitchers of its Almost-Perfect Games From 1908 to 2015,
there have been thirteen pitchers who have begun Major League Baseball
games by retiring the first twenty-six opposing batters, but then, one
out from completing a perfect game, somehow faltering (or having
perfection stolen from them). Three other pitchers did successfully
retire twenty-seven batters in a row, but are still not credited with
perfect games. While stories of pitching the perfect game have been told
and retold, Almost Perfect looks at how baseball, at its core, is about
heartbreak, and these sixteen men are closer to what baseball really is,
and why we remain invested in the sport. Author Joe Cox visits this
notion through a century of baseball and through these sixteen
pitchers--recounting their games in thrilling fashion, telling the
personal stories of the fascinating (and very human) baseball figures
involved, and exploring the historical American and baseball backdrops
of each flawed gem. From George "Hooks" Wiltse's nearly perfect game in
1908 to "Hard Luck" Harvey Haddix's 12-inning, 36-consecutive-outs
performance on May 26, 1959 (the most astounding single-game pitching
performance in baseball history) to Max Scherzer's near miss in 2015,
Joe Cox's book captures the action, the humanity, and the history of the
national pastime's greatest "almosts."
