White Sox history: Remembering Charlie Robertson's forgotten feat on his birthday

Since 2009, Major League Baseball has seen seven perfect games, with two of them being thrown by White Sox hurlers Mark Buehrle and Philip Humber. In fact, the White Sox as a team have thrown the second-most perfect games in baseball history (three), only behind the New York Yankees (four). On the anniversary of his birth, lets taka a look at the first of the three White Sox pitchers to throw a perfect game.

Born January 31, 1896 in Dexter, TX, Charlie Robertson would go on to become just the fifth man in baseball history to toss a perfect game, and the first for the Chicago White Sox. As a whole, Robertson’s career can be described as... mediocre at best. Robertson has the dubious accomplishment of having a losing record in every single year of his career, which spanned parts of eight seasons. Robertson won just 38% of his decisions. In terms of most likely candidates to throw a perfect game in their MLB career, Robertson wouldn't be near the top of the list. And that's what makes baseball special.

Perfect games have always been seemingly random. It’s by far the hardest single-game accomplishment in that's ever been done in baseball baseball, but you don’t have to be a legendary pitcher to throw one. Hall of Famers John Montgomery Ward, Addie Joss, Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, and Catfish Hunter all pitched a perfect game in their careers, but so have pitchers like Lee Richmond (the first to do it), Dallas Braden, and even Don Larsen in the Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, who like Robertson, all finished their careers with a losing record.  Not to mention the most recent White Sox perfect game, thrown by RHP Philip Humber in 2012. Humber started less than 100 games in his major league career and finished with a career 5.31 ERA, yet he accomplished baseball's most difficult feat.

Charlie Robertson makes history in 1922

Charlie Robertson cemented himself in history on April 30, 1922, against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers, pitching the only perfect game in a 48-year period between 1908 (Addie Joss) and 1956 (Don Larsen). The first and only rookie to accomplish the feat, Robertson put down the Tigers in just the fourth start of his career. In quite a dominant fashion, Robertson allowed just six fly balls to the outfield, with fifteen of the outs coming via the ground ball, and six via the strikeout, including Ty Cobb.

The Detroit faithful began cheering for the White Sox rookie around the eighth inning, and watched in delight as he set down the last six batters with relative ease. Trying to spoil the young pitcher's date with history, manager Cobb sent up three pinch hitters in the ninth, but to no avail, as Johnny Bassler flew out to left-fielder Johnny Mostil for the final out. David Fleitz states in the game’s SABR article that over 25,000 Detroit fans went into a frenzy after the final out was caught, cheering Robertson for his historically dominant performance. In fact, the performance was so dominant that Ty Cobb himself protested the game and had half a dozen baseballs sent to the American League office for inspection, arguing Robertson was doctoring the ball. They found nothing. 

Robertson would never again reach the fame he had on that day in 1922 and would go on to have an unremarkable career that featured stints with the St. Louis Browns and Boston Braves, calling it a career after his age-32 season. He fell into obscurity after his career and didn't appear in the press until after Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956, as up until that point, he had pitched baseball's most recent perfect game. Robertson lived to be 88 years old and died in 1984 in Fort Worth, Texas.