Mike Witt | |||
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Pitcher | |||
Born: Fullerton, California |
July 20, 1960 |||
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MLB debut | |||
April 11, 1981, for the California Angels | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
June 17, 1993, for the New York Yankees | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Win–loss record | 117–116 | ||
Earned run average | 3.83 | ||
Strikeouts | 1,373 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Michael Atwater Witt (born July 20, 1960) is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of twelve seasons in Major League Baseball between 1981 and 1993, and threw the eleventh perfect game in MLB baseball history in 1984.
Prior to his major league career, Witt played baseball at Servite High School, and was an All-County basketball player as well. He was drafted out of high school in the fourth round of the 1978 Major League Baseball draft.
At just twenty years of age, Witt made his major league debut with the California Angels in 1981. Standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall and possessing a great curveball as well as a good fastball, Witt's breakout season came in 1984, when he went 15-11 for the Angels. On July 23 of that year, he struck out sixteen Seattle Mariners during a complete game five-hitter; but the highlight of the year came on the final day of the season, September 30, when he pitched the eleventh perfect game in baseball history against the Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium. He struck out ten and needed just 94 pitches to complete the gem.
Witt's perfect game is, to date, one of five no-hitters ever pitched on the final day of a Major League Baseball regular season, the others being Bumpus Jones's no-hitter on October 15, 1892 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the combined no-hitter pitched by Vida Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad, and Rollie Fingers for the Oakland Athletics on September 28, 1975 against the California Angels, Henderson Álvarez's no-hitter on September 29, 2013 against the Detroit Tigers ,and Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on September 28, 2014 against the Miami Marlins . He was also the first pitcher to hurl a perfect game by a 1-0 score since Sandy Koufax (September 9, 1965, see Sandy Koufax's perfect game).