Harvey Haddix's masterpiece

Fifty years ago at the old County Stadium, the Milwaukee Braves were both the victims and the winners of one of the greatest games in baseball history.

Lefthander Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates threw a perfect game against the Braves for 12 innings on May 26, 1959. Thirty-six Braves came up to bat, 36 Braves made outs. No hits, errors or walks.

But Braves pitcher Lew Burdette and his defense effectively scattered a dozen hits, keeping the game scoreless, so it went into the 13th inning.

Here are a couple of excellent anniversary stories about the game.
First up, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story from Frank Clines:

This Tuesday night, Milwaukee baseball fans will head out to a National League game with a good chance of seeing a victory fueled by power hitting. The same was true 50 years earlier to the day.

But the folks at Miller Park for the Brewers' game against St. Louis probably won't see anything like the game that took place on May 26, 1959. The 19,194 people at County Stadium that chilly night - also a Tuesday - got a victory, but only after the hometown Braves were throttled by the greatest pitching performance in major-league history.

For 12 innings, an unimposing Pittsburgh left-hander named Harvey Haddix stymied the Braves' powerful offense completely and astoundingly. Thirty-six Braves batted in those innings and 36 failed to reach base. There have been 17 perfect games pitched in the majors over nine innings, but no one else has ever gone where Haddix did.

And no one else has ever suffered such a heartbreaking loss. Because the Pirates couldn't score against Lew Burdette, the Braves were able to ruin Haddix's night in the 13th inning - in a finish almost as mind-boggling as his performance.

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Next, an excellent and very detailed piece by Bob Dvorchak in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In his later years with the Pirates, after he was the pitching coach for the 1979 champions and before the baseball bureaucracy no longer recognized his game, Harvey Haddix reflected on the most extraordinary game ever pitched.

"Not a day goes by that somebody doesn't ask me about that game," said the left-handed pitcher known as The Kitten because somebody else bigger than he was already The Tiger. "I think I got more notoriety from it because I lost."

Indeed. Fifty years ago, against the formidable lineup of the Milwaukee Braves, he retired batter after batter, inning after inning, accomplishing what no other pitcher in the game has accomplished before or since.

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The Post-Gazette also has an extensive multimedia package about the game, including a slide show and a video story.

A related New York Times feature on the game

A full box score and log for the game