Antedating of "Perfect Game"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I am reading The Sporting News's reporting on Cy Young's perfect game,
the first in the modern era.

"It will be admitted that scoring is not an exact science and scorers
frequently differ in judgment in crediting hits and errors. The rule
imposes upon the scorers the exercise of judgment and the severest
scorer is the new man in base ball who never played the game himself to
any extent. However, Thursday's scoring of Boston's fielding and
Philadelphia's hitting was an exact science, for every play was perfect
and there was not a chance of any difference of opinion. Every scorer
recorded every play alike.
     This absolute perfection and the fact that Young was pitching from
a rubber 65 feet away from the plate, while many truly remarkable
performances of years ago were made by pitchers who stood 45 feet from
the plate, makes Young's pitching record against the Athletics stand
alone in base ball history."

So, no "perfect game", but "absolute perfection".

DanG

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