It might have been the best game Jim Palmer ever pitched: 11 scoreless innings on a summer afternoon in Baltimore in 1977, with nine strikeouts and no walks. Palmer didn’t win it, though, because the Orioles never scored. Gaylord Perry, the slippery ace of the Texas Rangers, was dominant.
“I come out to get the ball and there’s two big fingerprints right on the slick spot of the ball, which is how you throw a spitter,” Palmer said. “So I go up to the umpire and I say, ‘I guess we don’t have to book him, his fingerprints are already on the ball.