That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–In baseball more than in most things in life, it is all about timing. Stockton lefty Dallas Braden, who with the Oakland Athletics pitched the 19th perfect innings in Major League history says his left arm is done, he cannot pitch again, and at 30 years of age, announced his retirement. “There is nothing in there, it’s just a shredded mess” said Braden announcing his retirement, and now trying to become a coach or sportscaster.

About the perfect game; I can’t forget that game, because it was a wonderful typical clear sunny Sunday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum, it was Mother’s Day 2010,and I had the pleasure of calling the action. A truly unforgettable game. To make the story even more compelling , Braden’s grandmother was at the game, she who raised him after his mother died while he was in high school.

Such is the beauty of baseball. Dallas Braden(born in Phoenix Arizona, raised in Stockton, California) was not a great pitcher by any means, he ends his career with the A’s with a record of 26-36 and a 4.16 earned run average in a total of 79 games, during a 5 game career with the Athletics.

Don Larsen was a pitcher for various teams for 14 seasons, he ended his career with 81-91 and a 3.78 earned run average, of his 14 years he only had 6 winning seasons, with Baltimore in 1954 he won 3 lost 21, yet on October 8, 1956 with the New York Yankees on the fifth game of the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he pitched a perfect game, with 97 pitches and retired 27 batters in a row. The only perfect game in a World Series.

On May 9, 2010, during a sunny afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum, Dallas Branden wrote his name in history by throwing the 19th perfect game, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0, in front of 12,228 fans. He will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but his name is among a select group of baseball players, in accomplishing one of the most difficult things to do in all sports. Hundreds, if not thousands of pitchers can not say the same.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk