Remembering baseball's first perfect game

TOLEDO, Ohio - On a grassy slope in Toledo's oldest cemetery is a gravestone that is hidden by the monuments to war heroes and past mayors. Chiseled on the stone is a name - J. Lee Richmond - that faded from memory long ago.

But the man buried at Forest Cemetery did something that no one had done before him: Playing for the Worcester, Mass., team, he threw the first perfect game in professional baseball.

The once wiry southpaw with the thin moustache retired 27 straight Cleveland batters no hits, runs, or walks in a feat that has been duplicated only 14 times in the annals of the game. Richmond's descendants want to ensure that his achievement on June 12, 1880, will never be forgotten. Relatives are contributing several thousand dollars for a historical marker to be placed over the grave in a ceremony this coming Saturday. Family members from around the country are expected to gather here for the event.

''He was one of the early heroes of the game,'' said John Zajc, executive director of the Society of American Baseball Research. ''He deserves it.''

More than $2,500 has been raised among family members, many of whom are long familiar with their ancestor's pitching past. John Richmond Husman said he grew up in a Toledo home where the exploits of his great-grandfather were passed on by relatives. Prodded by cemetery officials and others, Husman said he started a drive early this year to create an historical marker to place at the site.

''No one would even know who he was by looking at the grave,'' said Husman. ''I felt that he should be recognized.''

Although Richmond was a noted Toledo educator and coach when he died in 1929, his record-setting performance in the early golden years of baseball became forgotten over time. One of the reasons is because the feat has been eclipsed by the perfect games tossed by modern stars in later years, his great-grandson said. The 30-inch by 42-inch granite marker that will be placed over the pitcher's grave will likely provide some narrative of his performance in Worcester on an overcast day 120 years ago.

''We're not sure exactly what it will say,'' Husman said. ''But it will obviously give the details of the game.''

The 5-foot, 10-inch, 142-pound player did more than just make history with a special performance. He was the game's premier left-hander who helped shape the early years of baseball.

A native of Ashtabula County, Ohio, Richmond was the first left-hander to win 20 games, and the first one to win 30 games in the major leagues. His early development of the curve ball has been noted by baseball writers and historians, and helped to influence the way the game is played. Richmond was responsible for another development: a rule barring professionals from playing with college teams.

A student at Brown University, he helped his team win a national championship the same year he began playing with the pro team in Boston, one of the first franchises in the National League.

His talent was recognized by opposing college teams, and eventually the rule was passed to keep him out. Richmond responded by doing something that is all too common in sports today - he skipped his senior baseball season at Brown to jump into the pros. Richmond was the nation's premier college player when he joined the club in Worcester in 1879. Pitchers tossed underhanded at the time, often at speeds reaching 80 mph, and fielders played bare-handed.

''It was a rough game back then, and the fielding was awful,'' said baseball historian Frederick Ivor-Campbell. But it was not poor fielding that bothered Richmond on the day he faced Cleveland.

He had been up all night after a class dinner at the college and even played in the annual seniors game at 5 a.m., said Husman, who has researched his great-grandfather's life. Richmond was able to sleep a few hours before catching a train to Worcester, but never had a chance to eat before taking the field, Husman said.

''His clock and his belly were not quite right,'' he said.

But his curveball was working, and one by one, the Cleveland batters took to the plate and could not get a hit. Making it more remarkable was Cleveland put an entire right-handed lineup against Richmond. At the time, left-handed throwers such as Richmond were considered ''freaks,'' as one columnist described it, because there were so few.

''That's what really gave him an edge in the early years, plus his curveball,'' Husman said.

Not quite a curveball, it was more like a rising fastball, his great-grandson said. Richmond had once demonstrated his prized pitch, or what he called an ''outdrop,'' to faculty members at Brown, who doubted a ball could curve. They left the display that day believing that it could be done after watching his throws, according to several written accounts.

But it was not the curveball that saved Richmond in the fifth inning of his game against Cleveland. It was his right fielder, Lon Knight. The fielder rushed in to scoop up what looked like a single and fired a throw to first base to save the day.

After the game, no headlines or major stories announced the feat. On the scorecard, it was written, ''the first no hit, no run game.''

In some ways, it was more difficult to turn in such a performance in that era, ''because the fielding was so awful. The fielders did not wear any gloves,'' said Ivor-Campbell. ''The ball, beside the cork center, was about the same.''

Richmond played four more seasons in the major leagues and also graduated from medical school at what is now Columbia University. He practiced medicine in northeastern Ohio before taking a job as principal in Geneva schools in 1889. The next year, he accepted a teaching position in Toledo and began an education career that spanned 40 years.

Eight years ago, a marker was placed at the field in Worcester where he tossed his perfect game. Zajc of the Society of American Baseball Research said Richmond was a part of the early years of baseball when the foundation of the game was established and most teams did not even have nicknames.

''Without recognizing these heroes of the past,'' he said, ''we can't really understand and appreciate the accomplishments of the heroes of today.''

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.