Hargrove on Perfection

"Barker could be wild, but he had really good stuff. I was at the game when he threw the ball into the press box in Boston. I was on that Rangers team. But he always had great stuff and could be a dominating pitcher.

"Usually, if the other team doesn't have a hit by the fifth inning, you start thinking about it. It's not a scary feeling for a fielder. You understand he's got a no-hitter going on, and it just makes you concentrate all the more. It doubles your desire, when the ball is hit to you, to get the guy out.

"I have never concentrated so hard on one hitter as I did when they pinch-hit Ernie Whitt [with two outs in the ninth inning]. It's late in the ballgame, so you know Barker isn't fresh, and Whitt was a left-handed pull hitter, so I knew the chances of him hitting the ball to me were really good. I'll never forget the feeling of looking in, and it was like someone had taken crepe paper and cut a little hole in it and put it in front of a television set, and Ernie Whitt was right in the middle of that hole. Everything was black around him. It almost scared me. All I could see was Ernie Whitt. But once he hit that ball to Manning, the TV came back on."

Hassey:

"Lenny was not a control pitcher. He was a hard-throwing pitcher who had pretty good stuff, but he always lacked the command of his pitches. That's what separated him from being a great pitcher. But when he did get it going, he was one of the toughest pitchers in the league.

"He had everything going that night. He stayed ahead of hitters. His curveball started in the strike zone and ended up in the dirt.

"I never said to myself that we had a perfect game going. It was hard for me to believe that we didn't walk anybody. There was never anything said to Lenny. If there was anything I said, it was, 'Boy, we've really got a good breaking ball going.' What else are you going to say? What do you have to say when you're getting guys out? The game plan was working.

"I didn't feel any pressure, because I wasn't the one who had to throw the ball. All I had to do was make sure I catch it. Lenny Barker threw the perfect game. All I can say is I was very fortunate that I was in the lineup that night.

"It's a great feeling to accomplish what you set out to do. The sad part is it was 25 years ago and it doesn't seem that long ago. I'm feeling pretty old having to do interviews about 25 years ago. It would be nice if we could say this was 10 years ago!"