Antedating of "Perfect Game"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 9:50 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> It's not so odd, when one considers that it is common to say things like
> "his perfect game was spoiled when he let up a walk in the 8th inning."

I think careful commentators would say something like "his bid for a
perfect game was spoiled..." For a would-be no-hitter there's the
succinct "no-hit bid."

(And surely "...when he *gave* up a walk..." is more common...)


--Ben Zimmer

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