With just three more wins needed to reach 300 total for his career, 43-year-old Gaylord Perry signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners on March 5, 1982. Perry then earned his 300th win that May when he went the distance to beat New York at the Kingdome, 7-3.
The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round.
~Gaylord Perry
The longest double header in Major League history was played on 31 May 1964 at Shea Stadium. The Giants defeated the Mets 5-3 in the first game of the day. Pitcher Gaylord Perry then led San Francisco to another victory in the second game, pitching ten innings in relief as the Giants won 8-6 in twenty-three innings. The second game lasted seven hours, twenty-three minutes, and the two games combined lasted nine hours, fifty-two minutes.
During the second game, the Mets turned a rare triple play in the fourteenth inning, and Gaylord Perry supposedly threw his first spitball in a Major League game.
On April 27, 1971, Hank Aaron hit a 350-foot home run off pitcher Gaylord Perry. It was the 600th homer of his career, making him only the third player in baseball history to accomplish this feat, behind Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. In spite of the homer, Atlanta lost to the Giants 6-5 in ten innings. Ironically, it was Willie Mays’ tenth inning single that produced the Giants’ winning run.
