No Blown Calls in this Perfect Game

[Quentin Jensen pitches to Matt Dahlin]

One way to improve your chances of a perfect game is to strike out everyone, like Steve Nebraska did. Major League Wiffleball’s Quentin Jensen almost did that, and he didn’t even need an umpire.

Like Nebraska, Jensen threw a perfect game in the post season. In Game 5 of the MLW Sac Series, our version of the World Series, fireballer Quentin Jensen, who promised to bring nothing but gas to this game, retired all 15 batters in a row to throw the first ever MLW perfect game. Almost ten years after it happened, it’s still the best pitching performance in Major League Wiffleball history.

In fact, Jensen was only one-strike away from a 15-strikeout performance. (We only play 5 innings in MLW, so there’s only 15 outs per game.) Shaun Breen lined out on an 0-2 pitch in the second inning to outfielder, Marc Ceccucci. Marc was wisely positioned in right field since he knew that if anyone did get around on Quentin, they certainly wouldn’t be able to pull the ball. Jensen then retired the next 9 batters in order via strikeout.

Jensen’s 14-strikeout perfect game wrapped up the series and sent his team home with MLW’s first Sac Series championship. This followed his complete game, one-hit, shutout in Game One. After the game Jensen was the unanimous selection for Sac series MVP.

While we’re still talking about Quentin Jensen’s perfect game 10 years later, and there must be a few people out there that occasionally refer to Steve Nebraska’s (fictional) perfect game, I have a feeling we’ll be talking about Armando Galarraga’s (almost) perfect game in another 10 years too.

However, Galarraga could have saved himself all this trouble if he just pitched like these guys did and struck out more than three batters.

Either way, when things don’t quite go your way, do what Armando Galarraga did, and be classy about it. Don’t add to the event by being a sore loser.