Speaking of Diamonds, and not 2011 Topps

Q. How many pitchers in the history of baseball have thrown a perfect game? 
A.  18 times in the modern era (Sorry Armando), 2 times in the 1800s

Q. How many times has a perfect game been spoiled by the 27th batter?
A.  Ten times  read about it on the Wiki page.

Of course we'll start with Roy.

Because of the rarity of the accomplishment, the pitchers who were perfect are showered with lavish gifts.  Let's take a look, shall we? 

Bling. I'd buy a replica of Roy Halladay's ring in a second.  The diamonds on the ring coincide with the number of batters: 27.  Rubies for the three bases and home plate.  I bet those gems are real.

During the on field ceremony Roy's catcher for the game, Carlos "Chooch" Ruiz was also presented with a ring.  Again, 27 diamonds in the middle.  Chooch got a framed home plate that was used in the game. He presented Roy with the pitching rubber.

Roy's wife Brandy also got into the jewelry action.  She received the pendant below.

Roy and his wife with their two boys, who got game balls set in their dad's hand.  No diamonds for them?



Just another view of the awesome ring.  

Class act that he is, Roy bought all of his teammates a Baume & Mercier watch engraved on the back with the saying "We did it together. Thanks, Roy Halladay."  Also the date of the game, the linescore, and the players name were engraved.  He got a watch for each and every player on the team.  Class.

Oh, and the watch retails for over $4,000, minus the engraving cost.  I bet he got some sort of discount though...

Out on the west coast, Dallas Braden of the Oakland A's pitched a perfect game, too.  His was back in May of 2010.  This is displayed at the A's home field.

Below is Braden's commemorative ring.  I like the green in contrast with the diamonds and silver.  Cool ring.

And this is what Braden got his teammates.  A bottle of Crown Royale commemorating the day.

How about if you pitch a NEAR perfect game due to an unfortunate call by an umpire?  Well, if you do that you still get a Corvette.

I found this, too. Seems that Crown Royale is a popular commemorative gift given by perfect game pitchers to teammates.  Mark Buerhle personalized each bottle with the name of the teammate.  His contract must've been bigger than Braden's.

I think I'd like the $4,000 watch instead, but I collect watches, so maybe I'm biased.  I find this stuff interesting, hope you did too!

In other news, I went to the Philly Show yesterday and picked up a bunch of stuff, including a 2011 Topps hobby box (yes, another one). It was a pretty good show.  I'll be working on posts from the show to put up this week, so stay tuned!