All Philip Humber wanted in Seattle on Saturday was his first win of the season. It didn’t matter how it came, as long as he got that first one out of the way.

Two hours and 17 minutes and 96 pitches later, the stunned 29-year-old White Sox right hander dropped to his knees in front of the pitcher’s mound and shortly found himself at the bottom of an overjoyed dogpile, as he had just become only the 21st pitcher in Major League history to throw a perfect game, following a 4-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Not even a month into the 2012 campaign and baseball has already seen its first perfect game or no hitter of the season.

You’d have to look back almost two years to recall the last time baseball a perfect game took place – Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay on May 29, 2010 at Florida.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Humber. “I don’t know what Philip Humber is doing in this list. No idea what my name is doing there, but I’m thankful it’s there.”

Humber, who was drafted in 2004 by the New York Mets with the third overall pick, finally lived up to one of the many high expectations that made him a key component in the 2008 blockbuster deal that sent two-time Cy Young award winner Johan Santana to New York. He is now the third White Sox pitcher to ever throw a perfect game, and the first since Mark Buehrle tossed his back on July 23, 2009.

The perfecto by Humber also gives the White Sox a grand total of 18 no hitters during their existence.

To say that it had been somewhat of a rough road leading up to this point for Humber might qualify as the understatement of the year. Tommy John surgery was necessary shortly after being drafted and a combination of significant Major League struggles and a number of trips between there and Triple A prohibited him from winning his first big league game until 2010 with the Kansas City Royals.

In his first full Major League season last year with Chicago he posted a 9-9 record with a 3.75 ERA in 26 starts.

Humber was absolutely dealing from start to finish. In fact, he did not encounter a three ball count until Mariners center fielder Michael Saunders was ahead 3-0 to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Regaining his composure, Humber came back to strike out Saunders for the first out of the inning.

John Jaso flew out to right for the second out, and before Humber knew it, he was just one batter away from perfection. The only thing that stood between he and baseball immortality was pinch hitter Brendan Ryan, who worked the count to 3-2.

The payoff pitch was a slider well off the plate low and away that Ryan attempted to check his swing at, but the home plate umpire made the call himself and ruled that Ryan had swung. The ball rolled past catcher A.J. Pierzynski momentarily, as Ryan argued the umpire’s call. Ryan was unable to make it halfway down the line by the time Pierzynski gobbled up the ball and lasered it down to first for the 27th out.

And then it was party time.

“I saw it get away from A.J. and saw the umpire ring him up and at that point, a ton of emotions and a lot of joy and excitement,” Humber said. “Most of all, just gratitude. Just thankful for where I’m at.”

With nine strikeouts on the day, a nasty slider like the final pitch was Humber’s bread and butter. Humber’s 96 pitches was the least thrown in a perfect game since former Yankee David Cone’s 88 on July 18, 1999 against the Montreal Expos.

“I was more nervous than I was in the World Series,” said Pierzynski. “There was no build up for this; it just happened. And you want it so bad for the guy on the mound and you want him to have that achievement forever and you want to have him remembered forever. It’s a special thing that Phil did.”

Image Courtesy of    White Sox

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Looks like Manny Ramirez’s playing days aren’t over just yet. The 39-year-old veteran outfielder, who immediately retired at the beginning of last season following his second known positive test for performance enhancing drugs over his career, signed a minor league deal worth $500,000 with the Oakland Athletics on Monday.

Ramirez had one hit in just seventeen at-bats and five games with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011 before calling it quits. He was well aware that with this being his second violation of MLB’s drug policy that he would have been required to miss 100 games, and therefore, decided to apparently walk away from the game on April 8.

At MLB’s winter meetings this past December, word got out that Ramirez had applied for reinstatement back into the league. The Commissioner’s Office granted it to him and decided to cut the original suspension he faced in half, down to 50 games, after considering the fact that he essentially sat out the majority of last season anyway, which was a punishment in itself.

Not many teams showed interest in Ramirez, but the A’s figured there would be no harm in giving him a low-cost minor league contract and an opportunity to make the Major League club. Oakland expects Ramirez to join the team at their spring training facility in Arizona this Friday. Manager Bob Melvin certainly supported the signing.

“I watched some video of him and saw the swing. It didn’t look any different, and it looked like he was in good shape,” said Melvin on Tuesday. “He’ll be ready to go with the position players, and we’ll see what he has to offer.”

Ramirez is easily regarded as one of the greatest offensive players of both his generation and of the entire modern era. Since beginning his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1993, the 12-time All Star, 9-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and 2004 World Series MVP has hit .312, driven in 1,831 runs, and ranks 14^th on the all-time home run list with 555 long balls.

“He is one of the best right-handed hitters I’ve ever seen,” said A’s general manager Billy Beane. “This is a guy who combines power with on-base percentage along with a high batting average. He’s a unique player.”

Ramirez is best known for his time in Boston with the Red Sox from 2001 to part of 2008, where he played a key role in the team breaking its 86-year World Series drought with a sweep over the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, along with its 2007 World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

The Red Sox front office and Ramirez no longer saw eye-to-eye by 2008, and he was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He remained in L.A. until he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2010. He would sign with the Rays the following year. Despite all of the bouncing around during the latter part of his career, Ramirez believes he can still be a productive Major League player.

“I’m feeling really good, mostly on a spiritual level. I’m very confident with the shape I’m in heading to spring training,” said Ramirez in an interview on a Dominican radio station. “There were three teams interested, but I left God to decide, and that’s why I signed with the Oakland A’s. I’m only coming back because I always loved baseball, ever since I was little kid. I have a passion for the sport, and I know I can still play.”

Image Courtesy of  JustASC / Shutterstock.com

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And the winner of the Yoenis Cespedes sweepstakes is… the Oakland A’s?

That’s right. According to mlb.com, the Oakland Athletics agreed to terms with the highly sought after 26-year-old Cuban outfielder on Monday. The deal is reported to be worth $36 million over a four-year span, but will not be officially announced until a physical has been passed.

“I am super happy because it’s been a dream of mine for a long time,” said Cespedes from the Dominican Republic. “To leave my country and play in the big leagues is what the goal was. My family is really happy, too. They are living their dreams through me.”

The 6-foot, 215-pound Cespedes had been at the top of the list for a number of Major League clubs once he was officially named a free agent on January 25 after recently making his way from Cuba to the Dominican Republic. Amongst this grouping of teams were the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, the Oakland A’s, and the odds-on favorite by many, the new-look Miami Marlins.

Given that Miami is both filled with Hispanic heritage and is pretty much just a hop, skip, and a jump from Cespedes’ native Cuba, the popular sentiment was that he would likely sign with the Marlins, who reportedly offered him a six-year deal somewhere in the neighborhood of $36 and $40 million, only a few days prior.

The Marlins have not shied away from spending the big bucks to bring in the best available talent this winter, as they have committed a total of $190 million in signing superstar shortstop Jose Reyes, veteran left-handed starter Mark Buehrle, and one of the more underrated closers in the game, Heath Bell. Miami also gave Ozzie Guillen a four-year, $10 million contract to be the team’s first manager in their brand new ballpark.

Even though he would not admit it, $9 million a year from the A’s might have been what caused the Marlins to lose out in the end. “It was a great process, training and working out for teams. It was a difficult decision to leave Cuba, but I’m really excited with how things worked out. I saw a bunch of teams, and they saw me, too, but Oakland was the best for me.”

Cespedes is a power-hitting center fielder that will easily be able to slide right into the middle of an Oakland lineup that – to say the least – struggled in that department last year, ranking 12 in the American League with a mere total of 114 home runs.

In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Cespedes made a name for himself on an international stage, hitting .458 in six games. His 2010-2011 season, which was his eighth and final season playing for Granma in the Cuban League, certainly confirmed that he was the real deal, as he hit .333 with 99 RBI and a record 33 home runs in just 90 games.

“My first goal is to make the team and stay healthy all season, and little by little, I’ll make more goals,” Cespedes said. “I’ve been preparing every day for this, and I 100 percent believe that I am ready for the Major Leagues. I have a lot of international experience and experience at a high level. I’m very confident in my abilities.”

He continued, “Believe me, I’m going to give the best I have, and I’m going to leave it all on the field. I’ll do my best and show I deserve this opportunity. I know I can do it. I’m ready.”

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/Athletics

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