 John Montgomery Ward, depicted circa 1877–1894 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | June 17, 1880 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Messer Street Grounds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Providence, Rhode Island | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Attendance | 1800 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On June 17, 1880, John Montgomery Ward of the Providence Grays threw a perfect game against the Buffalo Bisons at Messer Street Grounds. It was the second perfect game in Major League Baseball history, which at the time only consisted of the National League (NL). Ward's perfect game occurred just five days after Lee Richmond's perfect game.
Ward was one of the best pitchers in the NL, and posted a 1.74 earned run average in 1880. Due to limited reporting from contemporary sources, little is known about Ward's perfect game outside of the box score. The opposing pitcher was Pud Galvin, who allowed five runs in nine innings. One newspaper noted there were a couple of strong defensive plays that helped preserve Ward's perfect game, such as a difficult catch made by center fielder Paul Hines, and "some wonderful stops" by shortstop John Peters.
The concept of a perfect game did not exist in 1880, and thus there was little discussion of Ward's accomplishment. Newspapers primarily focused on the lack of errors in the game. The legitimacy of both Richmond's and Ward's perfect game when compared to other MLB perfect games are the occasional subject of debate among sportswriters. The main criticism of their accomplishments is that the rules of baseball in 1880 greatly differed from modern day rules. Although MLB.com does include Richmond and Ward in their list of MLB perfect games, some sportswriters exclude them, and instead describe their perfect games as pioneering accomplishments.