Feature

THE ISSUEPERFECT THE ISSUEPERFECT

Often perfection is no more than a moment. That particular Albert Pujols home run swing. The best LeBron drop-step. A precise Landon Donovan put-away. Sometimes, though, the measurable nature of our games etches them in eternity: a pitcher’s perfect game, a bowler’s 300, an undefeated season. One way or another, in one sport or another, it’s there if you know what you’re WITH REPORTING BY JASON CATANIA AND KEVIN COLLIER

looking for. What follows are some representations of perfection. If we didn’t nail the bull’s-eye every time, that just confirms the elusiveness of the quarry. And that’s okay, because there’s one thing we do know for sure: It’s the pursuit that matters.

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BY LaRUE COOKILLUSTRATIONS BY JACOB THOMAS

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EVERY SPORT HAS ITS OWN IDEA OF “AS GOOD AS IT GETS.”

Archery Nothing says precision with more zing than an arrow shot from long distance into a 4.8-inch bull’s-eye. An American,

Braden Gellenthien, set the standard for competitive archers by drilling that center circle with each of his 12 arrows from 70 meters in one round at the 2009 Archery World Cup in Copenhagen. Impressive, right? Okay, now imagine sending 36 arrows true from each of four distances: 90, 70, 50 and 30 meters. Because that’s what it would take to achieve a peerless score in archery’s most daunting format, the 144-arrow FITA event. Peter Elzinga of the Netherlands came closest of any man to a perfect score of 1,440 (10 points per bull’s-eye) when he

registered 1,419 in a 2009 tournament in his home country. Jamie Van Natta of the U.S. set the women’s record, 1,412, at a 2007 tournament in Michigan (women shoot from 70, 60, 50 and 30 meters).

Five-time U.S. Olympian Butch Johnson is convinced the mythical 1,440 is a dream that will never come true. “No way you get a perfect score,” says the archer known as The Legend, with a record 46 national titles and a career best of 1,353 points (at the 2001 nationals). He doesn’t believe the word “perfect” should even be uttered on the range: “You have shots that feel that way,” Johnson says, “but it’s something you strive for, an idea that keeps you going.”

From THE archives OF

FLAWLESSNESS

From THE archives OF

FLAWLESSNESS

THE ISSUEPERFECT

NBA An 82-game season pretty much erases any chance of season-long perfection. The best-ever Bulls had Michael Jordan and Scottie

Pippen and they still lost 10 times. In 1971-72, the Lakers won 33 in a row, and they finished with 13 losses. From a player’s eye-view, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game could seem perfect. (That number does have that kind of effect on people.) But, seriously, he missed 27 shots that night. On the other hand, in the 1966-67 season, Wilt shot 15-of-15 or more from the field three times as a 76er, including one 18-for-18er. That’s the record for FGs in a game without a miss. And perfect from the line? A couple of years ago, Raptor José Calderon came close; his 98.1% for the season included just three misses in 154 attempts. And speaking of mistake-free: perfect = no turnovers. Two teams have flirted with that: both the Bucks in 2006 and the Cavs in 2009 finished a game with just two apiece.

Boxing We can all agree there is a purity to a one-punch knockout. Can we also agree that if that punch is the first one thrown, it just ratchets

up that purity? Welterweight Aurele “Al” Couture scored the fastest one-punch knockout—10.5 seconds—on Sept. 24, 1946, against Ralph Walton.

It is a mark that will never fall; boxers are now sent to a neutral corner before the 10-count begins. Another stainless mark likely to last forever is the 49–0 record of heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano. The Rock, in fact, is the only heavyweight champ to have retired unbeaten. Still, his perfec-tion is not without its skeptics. “I’m not taking away from Marciano’s record,” says Larry Merchant, Hall of Fame boxing analyst. “But in the post- Joe Louis era, there was a decline in competitive heavyweights. And in boxing it’s who you fought, not how many you won without losing.” Killjoy.

College Basketball We say NCAA hoops perfection and you say ... UCLA’s streak of

88 wins in a row. (Okay, some of you say the UConn women’s 81 and counting; fair enough.) But when it comes to unblemished individual performances, we direct you to Duke star Christian Laettner’s game against Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight. He went 10-for-10 from the field and 10-for-10 from the line—and hit that heroic last- second game-winner for the Blue Devils. But conceivably even that may be outdone someday. Here are two streaks that won’t be: UNLV and D2’s Kentucky Wesleyan hold their divisions' records for hitting at least one trey in every game since the three-point line was standardized on the hardwood in 1986. At press time, the Rebels’ streak stands at 775; Wesleyan’s is at 632. Hope we haven't jinxed them.

MLB A perfect game—27 up, 27 down—gets all the headlines, but even perfect games can be ranked if you really try (see page 104). Here’s

a clean sheet you can’t argue with: striking out the side on nine pitches. That minimalist feat has earned a catchy term of its own—the Immaculate Inning—and 44 of them have been tossed. Only three pitch-ers have done the deed twice: Lefty Grove, Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. What does perfection look like from the batter’s box? Well, the MLB record for home runs in a game is four. And while that has happened 15 times, Carlos Delgado is the only man who hit one out in each of his plate appearances.

College Football Undefeated is a ho-hum accomplishment on the college gridiron. There have been 11 perfect FBS teams in the past decade. As of

Thanksgiving there were still four this season. But no D1 squad has ever put together a run of dominance to match that of D3’s University of Mount Union (Ohio). The Purple Raiders have had nine undefeated seasons in the past 20 and won 95.2% of their games overall. And they haven’t been shut out in 366 consecutive games, dating back to Nov. 7, 1981. Mount Union finished this past season 10–0, then won its first playoff game 49-0.Rocky Marciano (right) vs. Archie Moore in the 1955 title fight.

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Wilt the Stilt has no monopoly on perfect shooting nights. Lakers forward Matt Barnes scored 24 points without missing a shot (and that includes free throws) on Nov. 19. But his accuracy was overshadowed two nights later by teammate Pau Gasol's mistake-free 28. Since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, 11 players have scored at least 25 points without a single misfire from the field or line.

AMAZING ARCS

NAME DATE PTS FGs FTs 3FGsGARY PAYTON, SuperSonics Jan. 4, 1995 32 14 3 1

CHARLES BARKLEY, 76ers March 24, 1989 31 10 9 2

PAU GASOL, Lakers Nov. 21, 2010 28 10 8 0

CHRIS MULLIN, Warriors Dec. 1, 1990 28 11 5 1

ROY HINSON, Nets March 22, 1988 27 13 1 0

KELLY TRIPUCKA, Jazz March 11, 1987 27 8 11 0

SAM PERKINS, SuperSonics Jan. 15, 1997 26 8 2 8

VERN FLEMING, Pacers Dec. 21, 1990 26 9 8 0

BRAD MILLER, Hornets March 24, 1999 25 9 7 0

KEVIN MCHALE, Celtics March 2, 1986 25 10 5 0

MYCHAL THOMPSON, Trail Blazers Jan. 10, 1982 25 11 3 0

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THE ISSUEPERFECT

Bowling Ten frames, 12 consecutive strikes, 120 downed pins, 300 points— that’s the unsurpassable single-game performance at the alley. On

the PBA Tour, it has happened 3,915 times since 1964, when the organiza-tion began to record them. But how many bowlers in Tour history have rolled three 300 games in a row? Exactly one, Norm Duke, who strung all those strikes together over two qualifying rounds before the 1996 Brunswick Johnny Petraglia Open. “No one has ever been on a run like that,” says the 46-year-old Duke, who has actually stroked 58 300s since joining the Tour in 1982. “The crowd understood what they were witness-ing more than I did.” Clearly, Duke was in a zone that day, but it’s only a matter of time before his accomplishment is topped. Perfect 300 games have been coming faster since the 1980s, when alleys began to go high-tech. Today, synthetic surfaces have replaced wood, which tends to warp, and oiling machines keep lane conditions consistent, insuring better accuracy. Give a pro a couple of breaks and watch the pins fall (see chart).

NHL For a hockey goalie, no number is more perfect than zero, so no goalie in NHL history has been more perfect than Martin

Brodeur. In 18 seasons, all with the Devils, the nine-time All-Star has put up 112 zeroes. Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo is the active goalie closest to that mark, and he isn’t even halfway there (52 shutouts).

On offense, the great ones use 50 as their barometer. The only players to score that many goals in their team’s first 50 games form a list of NHL elite: Maurice Richard, Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky, who did it three times. In the 1981-82 season, it took him just 39 games.

Golf

Now, here’s a sport in which perfect is measurable: 18 holes, 18 holes-in-

one, 18 on your scorecard. Good luck with that. (Fun fact: Andrew Magee drove a ball 332 yards into the hole during the 2001 TPC Scottsdale, the longest hole-in-one in PGA Tour history.) So how low can they go? This past spring, then-18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa shot a 58, the lowest score in a major-tour event. The PGA Tour record is 59, first posted by Al Geiberger in the second round of the 1977 Memphis Classic. It has since shown up on the cards of four other PGAers.

Peers consider Geiberger’s round the most sublime 59. The old pro sank 11 bird-ies, one eagle and six pars at the Colonial Country Club, which at 7,200 yards was one of the longest and most dif-ficult courses on the Tour at the time. And he did it on a scorching 102° day. “People asked, ‘Would you rather have won the PGA or shot 59?’ ” says Geiberger, who did win the PGA Championship in 1966. “Ahead of time, I would have said the PGA. Now, I’d say the 59. It has stuck more.”

Sure has. Golfers still have a name for the 73-year-old pro: Mr. 59.

NASCAR In stock car racing’s top series, a driver has led every lap of a race, start to finish, 92 times. The last time it happened was on Sept. 17,

2000, when Jeff Burton dominated the Dura Lube 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. NASCAR drivers don’t need to lead every lap to win, but they do need to win to attain the optimal driver rating—an eight-category measure of performance that maxes out at 150.0 (think QB rating for racers). That hallowed score has been achieved only 11 times since the series started keeping track of loop data in 2005. And here’s a shocker: Kurt Busch, not Jimmie Johnson, has the most, with four.

Bull Riding Yes, 8 Seconds is the name of the movie, but in real-life rodeo the scoring begins only after the cowboy has held on for the count.

Four judges rate both cowboy and bull on a scale of 1 to 25 each, and all four scores are added together and divided in half, for a score of up to 50. The bull's and the rider's scores are then totaled for a max ride score of 100. It’s an elusive number. Four times in PBR history a cowboy has scored 96.5 points. Legend Chris Shivers was in the saddle for two of those. Ask him if a perfect ride is possible, and he gives no bull: “I doubt it.” FR

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Al Geiberger in Memphis when he shot his 59.

Martin Brodeur

CUP SERIES PERFECT RACES

8/14/2005 Watkins Glen

› 9/16/2007 New Hampshire

› 9/12/2009 Richmond

› 4/23/2005 Phoenix› 7/24/2005 Pocono› 8/5/2007 Pocono› 3/8/2009 Atlanta

KURT BUSCH

› 8/31/2008 Auto Club› 5/31/2009 Dover

JIMMIE JOHNSON

› 11/12/2006 Phoenix

PER-YEAR AVERAGE PBA EVENTS AND 300 GAMES ROLLED, BY DECADE

300s

Events

1970-79

56.5

33.7

1980-89

85.6

33.8

1990-99

151.5

31.2

2000-10

21.6

85.8

› 11/21/2010 Homestead

TONY STEWART

CLINT BOWYER

DENNY HAMLIN

KEVIN HARVICK

CARL EDWARDS

THE ISSUEPERFECT

NFL Two examples of pro football peerlessness are indisputable. The 1972 Dolphins 17–0 (including their Super Bowl victory) and line-

backer Mike Vrabel. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Vrabel, who now plays for the Chiefs, is the game’s most perfect scoring machine. He has scored a TD on each of his 12 catches as a moonlighting tight end.

Here’s something else that may surprise you. There is no such thing as a perfect passer rating. “It’s a maximum rating,” corrects Steve Hirdt, of the Elias Sports Bureau. Technically speaking, he is correct, but try

convincing Saints fans of that. They have seen what they believe to be perfection: Drew Brees going 18-for-23 for 371 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions in a win over the Patriots on MNF last season. That perfect, uh, “maximum” performance of 158.3 marked the 23rd time in NFL history a passer with a minimum of 20 attempts had achieved the highest rating attainable from that convoluted formula.

Hirdt reads the list of those passers and grits his teeth. He says the QB rating was created in the 1970s to capture a signal-caller’s full season, not one four-quarter roll. “Over time, people learned the formula and started doing with it what they wanted,” he says. “But giving a quarter-back a single-game rating is the same as using a one-game batting average to evaluate a hitter.” Case in point: Former Tampa Bay QB Craig Erickson earned a 158.3 in a win over Indy on Sept. 11, 1994. The fourth-round pick never threw a postseason pass in his eight-year career, and certainly will never make anyone’s list of go-to throwers. “This being America, there’s no federal law against using the passer rating to judge something it’s not meant to judge,” Hirdt says. Maybe so, but labeling Erickson a perfect passer is a bit of a crime.

Soccer When does the beautiful game elevate to masterpiece? Fans

might mention shutouts or hat tricks or a guy named Pelé. But the World Cup, the sport’s signature competi-tion, has graced this earth 19 times, and only once did a team make a flaw-less march through it to victory. In 1970, the Brazilians—led by, of course, Pelé—went 6–0 in qualifying, then 6–0 in the Cup. Then again, the streak wasn’t totally spotless: Seleção gave up nine goals along the way.

Surfing The highest score an ASP surfer can earn for riding a single wave is 10. So in the typical two-wave format, the top score per heat is—

c’mon, you can do it!—20. But to get those 10s you have to impress a major-ity of the five judges. After scoring each ride, they drop the highest and lowest among them, then average the remaining three. But to earn the vaunted perfect 10, all five have to flash that sacred number. Kelly Slater, the 38-year-old legend who became the oldest surfer to win the champion-ship on Nov. 6 in Puerto Rico, is one of two surfers to rate a 20 in a heat. (He did it in 2005; Joel Parkinson followed in 2008.) Slater scored one 10 in the final in Puerto Rico to help him clinch his 10th title, albeit the mark was just less than perfect: four 10s, one 9.8.

Billiards Pool is a simple game: Call your shot, pocket your ball. You know what isn't so simple? Making more than a few shots in a row.

That's what makes the 10-rack sweep of Mike Sigel at the 1992 U.S. Open Championship so astounding. The competitor who shoots first in straight pool is at a disadvantage; it's tough to call a shot off the break. After Sigel's opponent, Mike Zuglan, broke, he turned the table over—and never regained control. Sigel knocked in 14 straight object balls, reracked, then used the cue ball not only to knock in the remaining object ball but also to break the new rack, allowing him to continue his run. He repeated that nine more times, and won 150-0. Other players have won matches by a similar perfect score, but Sigel's is special because he never allowed his opponent a second chance to miss a shot, let alone make one. Even bet-ter, it's on video.

Kelly Slater

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CALCULATING PEYTON MANNING’S 2004 QB RATING

1 PERCENTAGE OF COMPLETIONS (PER ATTEMPT)

67.6 – 30 = 37.6336 completions / 497 attempts = 67.6%

37.6 x 0.05 = 1.88 points

2 AVERAGE YARDS GAINED (PER ATTEMPT)

4,557 yards / 497 = 9.179.17 – 3 = 6.176.17 x 0.25 = 1.54 points

4 PERCENTAGE OF INTERCEPTIONS (PER ATTEMPT)

10 INTs / 497 = 2.01%2.01 x 0.25 = .503 2.375 – .503 = 1.88 points

5 1.88 + 1.54 + 1.97 + 1.88 = 7.27 points

7.27 / 6 = 1.21 points

1.21 x 100 = 121.1 points

3 PERCENTAGE OF TOUCHDOWN PASSES (PER ATTEMPT)

49 TDs / 497 = 9.86%9.86 x 0.20 = 1.97 points

The best single-season passer rating ever was the 121.1 achieved by Peyton Manning in 2004, when he threw a then-record 49 TDs while completing 67.6% of his passes. He was picked off 10 times.

What’s longer ...

Record high school football winning streakor

answer

Record high school boys’ hoops winning streak?

Hoops Streak Passaic (N.J.) High won 159 straight hoops games from 1919 to 1925. Concord De La Salle (Calif.) High won 151 football games in a row from 1992 to 2003.

PERFECT CONUNDRUM