It was a Sunday afternoon, May 17, 1998. Beanie Baby Day at Yankee Stadium. Nearly 50,000 fans were packed into the stands, mostly there to snag a plush toy for their kids or themselves. Nobody walked through the turnstiles expecting to see history. Honestly, David Wells probably didn’t expect to make it, either.
The big left-hander—affectionately known as "Boomer"—wasn't exactly the poster child for peak athletic conditioning. He was burly, loud, and loved his late nights. But by the time the final out was squeezed in right field, Wells had etched his name into a very short, very elite list. He had just thrown the 15th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.
The Legend of the "Skull-Rattling" Hangover
If you've heard anything about the David Wells perfect game, you've heard the story about the night before.
In his 2003 autobiography, Perfect I’m Not, Wells claimed he pitched that masterpiece while "half-drunk" with a "raging, skull-rattling hangover." He told a wild tale about being at a Saturday Night Live after-party until 5:30 in the morning with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. According to Wells, he only got about an hour of sleep before heading to the Bronx.
It makes for a legendary sports myth. The problem? Most of those details don’t actually hold up under a microscope.
Fact-checkers have since pointed out that SNL wasn't even in production that week. Its season finale had aired the week prior. Plus, Jimmy Fallon wasn't even on the show yet in May of '98. While Wells was almost certainly out late—he was a notorious night owl who loved the Manhattan social scene—the specific "SNL party" narrative seems to be a case of a guy with a foggy memory trying to tell a better story.
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Whether he was nursing a massive headache or just a little bit of fatigue, what happened on the mound was nothing short of miraculous.
Dominance by the Numbers
Wells wasn't just "getting by" against the Minnesota Twins that day. He was flat-out lethal.
The Twins lineup wasn't exactly a gauntlet of Hall of Famers, but it had its share of dangerous bats, including a 41-year-old Paul Molitor. Wells carved through them with a efficiency that was scary. He threw 120 pitches, 79 of them for strikes.
Breaking down the box score:
- Total Batters Faced: 27
- Strikeouts: 11
- Pitches: 120
- Time of Game: 2 hours, 40 minutes
The tension started to get weirdly heavy around the seventh inning. In the dugout, the "no-talk" rule was in full effect. It’s a classic baseball superstition: if a guy is throwing a no-hitter or a perfect game, you don’t look at him, you don’t sit near him, and you definitely don't mention what's happening.
Wells later joked that his teammates were treating him like he had the plague. He’d sit down on the bench and players would literally stand up and walk away. The only person who broke the silence was David Cone. In the eighth inning, Cone leaned over and told him to "break out the knuckleball." It was a joke—Wells didn't throw one—but it was exactly the kind of levity Boomer needed to keep his nerves from redlining.
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The Final Three Outs
By the ninth, the crowd was on their feet for every single delivery. The atmosphere was described by Bernie Williams as more vibrant than most World Series games.
Jon Shave led off the ninth. He flew out to Paul O'Neill in right field. One down.
Next up was Javier Valentin. Wells set him down on four pitches, finishing him off with a signature curveball that had been biting all afternoon. Two down.
The final batter was Pat Meares. On a 0-1 count, Meares lofted a routine fly ball toward right. Paul O'Neill didn't even have to move that much. He drifted under it, squeezed the glove, and the stadium erupted.
Wells didn't just celebrate; he was mobbed. His teammates hoisted his 240-pound frame onto their shoulders and carried him off the field. It was a scene of pure, unadulterated joy.
Why it Still Matters
There’s a reason we’re still talking about the David Wells perfect game nearly three decades later. It wasn't just the feat itself—it was the man who did it.
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Wells was a throwback. He wore a game-used Babe Ruth hat that he bought for $35,000 (until Joe Torre made him take it off). He had a tattoo of a devil on his arm. He didn't look like a guy who was supposed to be perfect.
But for 27 batters, he was.
He became the first Yankee to throw a regular-season perfect game since Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series. Funnily enough, Wells and Larsen both attended the same high school: Point Loma High in San Diego. Talk about a weird coincidence in the cosmos of baseball.
Actionable Takeaways for Baseball Fans:
- Watch the Condensed Game: If you haven't seen the highlights recently, look for the footage of his curveball that day. The break on it was devastating, especially against the Twins' right-handers.
- Understand the Luck Factor: Even in a perfect game, you need defense. Look at Chuck Knoblauch’s play in the eighth inning on a hard grounder by Ron Coomer. Without that range, the dream dies right there.
- Separate Fact from Fiction: Enjoy the "hangover" stories for the color they add to the game's history, but remember that Wells was a professional who, despite his lifestyle, had a deep, technical understanding of the strike zone.
The 1998 Yankees went on to win 114 games and a World Series title, often cited as the greatest team in the history of the sport. But even in a season of endless wins, Wells’ perfect Sunday remains the emotional high-water mark of that dynasty. It was the day the imperfect man found perfection in the Bronx.
Next Step: To see how this performance stacks up against the modern era, you should compare the pitch-tracking data from Wells' 1998 game to Domingo Germán’s 2023 perfect game to see how much the "stuff" has actually changed over 25 years.