Lefty Don Carman Misses a "Perfecto" by Inches

Carman's 1985 Tastykake Card

If you search for video of former Phillies pitcher Don Carman on You Tube, you won't find any footage of him pitching. The only clip is one of him hitting. In the clip (see below) Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas describe Carman's first major league hit, which came on May 16, 1987, after he had gone hitless in his previous 48 at bats over three-plus seasons. In 2011, Carman was named the second worst hitting pitcher (next to Ron Herbel) in major league history by Al Yellen of SBNation. Despite his futility with a bat in his hand, Carman was a pretty good pitcher over eight seasons with some pretty poor Phillies teams. On August 20, 1986, he came within a catchable fly ball of pitching a perfect game against the San Francisco Giants. 

In July of 1986, Carman was moved into the Phillies rotation after he had spent the past year-and-a-half as a successful reliever. The August 20 game was his eighth career start. The Phillies, 60-59 at that point of the season, were in San Francisco to play a Wednesday afternoon game at Candlestick Park against the 61-58 Giants. Carman's mound opponent was the Giants ace Mike Krukow. It was a bright sunny day with Candlestick's usual swirling wind. The sun and wind would play a significant role in the game as we shall see.

Using his fastball. split finger fastball. and improved slider, Carmen was on his game throughout. After the game Carmen told reporters, "I started thinking about [a perfect game] in the second inning. It was without question the best I've ever felt on the mound. I guess if I ever have perfect game stuff, this was the day." 

The Giants were not getting anything that was even close to a hit. Gary Redus flagged down Candy Maldonado's soft liner to left with a sliding grab, but it was not a difficult catch. Von Hayes made a couple of good running catches of foul balls beyond first base, but those were clearly fouls. Carman kept inducing soft contact. Pitching coach, Claude Osteen said Carman put all of his pitchers together on this day, "It was beautiful to watch."

Unfortunately for Carman, the Phillies were unable to dent Krukow for a run. The Phillies got two men on in the first, but Mike Schmidt grounded into an inning ending double play. Von Hayes led off the seventh with a single but was rubbed out when Glenn Wilson bounced into another twin killing. In the eighth, Juan Samuel led off with a single, moved to second as catcher Ronn Reynolds bounced out softly to short and then moved to third on a Steve Jeltz line single to left. The rally died, however, when Samuel was caught in a run down and tagged out on a Carman bunt. Redus ended the inning with a flyout to left field.

With the score knotted at 0-0, Giants catcher Bob Brenly led off the bottom of the ninth. Carman had retired 24 consecutive batters. Brenly launched a high drive to left center field. Carman said, "At first I thought it was a home run. and I immediately thought 'you've gone from perfect game to losing pitcher in one pitch.'" Brenly also thought he hit it well enough to go out. "But having played in Candlestick for five years, I know to take nothing for granted."

Meanwhile, centerfielder Milt Thompson was battling sun and wind in an attempt to track down the ball. "The thing is at first, it looked like a sure home run, but the wind here makes you try to chase every ball down. And then the sun was really tough. I had my sunglasses down, but I lost sight of the ball a couple times while I was chasing it, and I finally just stuck out my glove and hoped the ball would fall into it." It didn't. The ball fell just beyond Thompson's reach for a double that ended the perfect game. "I gave it my absolute best shot," said Thompson.* Redus, who was chasing the ball down from his left-field position, said, "I could have caught it, but Milt looked like he was in better position."

Some Phillies players speculated that speedy Jeff Stone, who had been playing centerfield in recent weeks, might have caught up to the ball, but right fielder Wilson came to Thompson's defense, saying, "There ain't no routine balls in this place."

With his perfect game and no-hitter now history, Carman went about trying to win the game. Anticipating a bunt from the next batter Jose Uribe, third baseman Schmidt called for the wheel play with him charging and shortstop Jeltz covering third. It worked and Brenly was cut down at third on Uribe's bunt. After pitcher Krukow sacrificed Uribe to second, Phillies manager John Felske ordered Carman to walk leadoff hitter, Dan Gladden. It was Carman's only walk of the game. Carman then got pinch hitter Joel Youngblood to pop out to end the inning. Carman had thrown 112 pitches on the afternoon.

In the tenth, Samuel gave the Phillies the lead with a one out solo home run to right. "He finally hung that breaking ball and I just went with it," said Sammy. Later in the inning, with two outs and Jeltz on first with another single, Felske sent Stone up to hit for Carman. Stone also singled, but the inning ended when Redus struck out. Steve Bedrosian came on to retire the heart of the Giants order, Chili Davis, Will Clark, and Chris Brown, in rapid order to save the 1-0 win for Carman.

Osteen also wanted to credit catcher Reynolds for his handling of Carman. "I have to take my hat off to the way Ronn Reynolds caught him. He worked him exactly the way we talked about. It was a great job by Reynolds." For his part Reynolds said, "All I know was it was a real fun game to be in. It was a thrill to be back there catching a game like that."

Carman continued to pitch well for the remainder of the season and finally got his first complete game shutout a month later, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, on September 15 at Veterans Stadium.

Don Carman was an entertaining character who readily admitted he was not only a left-handed pitcher, but also a "left-handed thinker." He was famous for regaling reporters with pithy baseball cliches after a ball game. Finally, in 1990, he published a list of 37 of his sayings and hung them on his locker for reporters to use at will. The list was published in newspapers across the country. My favorite is "I don't get paid to hit." You can read the full list here.

Carman was a key starting pitcher for the Phillies in 1987-88 until he hit a speedbump for a bad 1989 team and recorded a 5-15 record, leading the league in losses. After one more season in the Phillies bullpen, Carman bounced from the Cincinnati Reds to the Texas Rangers, before hanging up his spikes after the 1992 season. 

In retirement, Carman returned to college and earned a degree in sports psychology. He had become interested in the profession through his work with famed sports guru, Harvey Dorfman, who later became famous as Roy Halladay's mentor.  Carmen has become a respected sports psychologist working with professional baseball players to deal with the stresses of the baseball life. He continues that work from his home in Naples, Florida to this day. 

* Some reports have claimed Brenly's ball hit off the heel of Thompson's glove before falling to the ground, but no reporter on that day and no Phillies player said they saw that. 

Don Carman's first major league hit after going 0-48.