4/22 Perfection

Ryan Dempster watched the highlights of White Sox pitcher Philip Humber’s perfect game. The TV cameras kept showing Humber sitting by himself in the dugout.

“I always laugh at how a guy gets a no-hitter or a perfect game going, and nobody talks to him [in the dugout] so he starts to go, ‘Why is nobody talking to me? Oh wait, I must have something going here,’” Dempster said. “It was pretty impressive. I know he’s always had the talent to do something like that.”

So, if Dempster ever gets close, does he want players to talk to him?

“When I go out there for the ninth inning, I want somebody to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got a perfect game going,’” he said. “I could only be so lucky.”

Dale Sveum watched the end of the game on television while having dinner with his wife. Sveum came close to playing in a perfect game but said Rangers manager Ron Washington broke it up with a hit after 8 2/3 innings.

“I remember when David Cone threw his, it was only 88 pitches and to throw a perfect game and end up with 96 [pitches], that’s a pretty efficient day,” Sveum said of Humber’s outing. “To finish it off in the last inning on a 3-2 slider on the first hitter and have enough savvy to throw another 3-2 slider with a perfect game on the line was pretty impressive and it ended up working out. I’m happy for him.”

– Carrie Muskat