 Richmond, depicted circa 1879–1886 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | June 12, 1880 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Worcester County Agricultural Fairgrounds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Worcester, Massachusetts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Attendance | 700 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On June 12, 1880, Lee Richmond of the Worcester Worcesters threw a perfect game against the Cleveland Blues at Worcester County Agricultural Fairgrounds. It was the first perfect game in Major League Baseball history, which at the time only consisted of the National League.
Richmond joined the Worcesters in 1879, and quickly brought legitimacy to the team with his pitching abilities. The day before his perfect game, Richmond attended graduation festivities at Brown University. After celebrating through the night, he participated in a class baseball game in the morning and only slept for a few hours before pitching his perfect game. Of the 27 batters he faced, the at bat that posed the greatest threat to breaking up the perfect game came in the fifth inning. Blues batter Bill Phillips hit what looked to be a single, but Worcesters right fielder Lon Knight fielded the ball and threw to first baseman Chub Sullivan to record the out.
The concept of a perfect game did not exist in 1880, and thus there was little discussion of Richmond's accomplishment. Newspapers primarily focused on the lack of errors in the game. Richmond retired from baseball in 1886, and practiced as a physician for several years before pursuing a career in education in Toledo, Ohio. The legitimacy of both Richmond's and John Montgomery Ward's perfect game when compared to other MLB perfect games is 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.