On May 5, 1904, Cy Young delivered baseball perfection. The 37-year-old Boston Americans pitcher retired all 27 Philadelphia Athletics batters he faced - no hits, no walks, no errors - in a 3-0 shutout at Huntington Avenue Grounds. It was the first perfect game in "modern" Major League Baseball history (under the current 60'6" pitching distance rules established in 1903). Young struck out 8 batters, the game lasted just 83 minutes, and a crowd of 10,267 watched the epic duel against fellow future Hall of Famer Rube Waddell. Legend says after striking out Waddell for the final out, Young shouted, “How do you like that, you hayseed?”. Unfathomable levels of smack talk for that era. Cy's masterpiece kicked off a then-record 45-inning scoreless streak (which included 24 consecutive hitless innings, still an MLB record). Young later called it the greatest day of his legendary career.
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