The single greatest game ever thrown by a major league pitcher ended in defeat for that pitcher.  It was not thrown by Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson, Greg Maddux or any other of the game's greatest pitchers.  Nor was it thrown by some obscure journeyman like Don Larsen.  Harvey Haddix, you see, was a good, but not great pitcher in his day, even if time has faded him from the memory of most baseball fans today.

     But on May 26, 1959, the man his teammates affectionately called "Kitten" took the mound against the hard-hitting Milwaukee Braves, a team that featured future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews, and proceeded to throw 12 perfect innings.  Thirty-six men went up.  And 36 men went down.  

    Unfortunately for Harvey Haddix, the game lasted an unlucky 13 innings.

    Haddix, who was born September 25, 1925 in Medway, Ohio, was signed to a free agent contract by the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 1947 season at the age of 21.  
    
    Pitching for Winston-Salem in the Carolina (C) League that year, Haddix made a superlative debut as a professional, posting a 19-5 record with a microscopic 1.90 earned run average in 27 games.

    Promoted the next season to AAA Columbus of the American Association, Haddix struggled a bit in 1948 (11-9. 4.49 ERA) and '49 (13-13, 3.49 ERA), but regained his promising form in 1950 when he went 18-6 with a 2.70 ERA, leading the American Association in wins, ERA, strike outs and complete games.

    After a brief military stint interrupted his baseball career in 1951, Haddix made his Major League debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1952, going 2-2 with a 2.79 ERA in seven games.  

    The next season, Haddix, still officially a rookie, broke out with a 20-9 record and a 3.06 ERA, leading the National League in shut-outs with six.  In 253 innings, he struck out 163 and posted a 1.14 WHIP.    Haddix, who earned the nickname "The Kitten" for his resemblance to former pitching great Harry "The Cat" Breechen, finished runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting that season to Brooklyn's Junior Gilliam.  He would never again have a season as good.

    "Haddix was a good pitcher who would have been great, in my opinion, if he hadn't lost something off his curve ball.  He never was quite the same after Joe Adcock hit a line drive off his knee one day in 1954 when he was just about the most effective pitcher around," recalled Hall of Famer Stan Musial.  

    "I lost my spring after that," concurred Haddix.  "All the tendons on the left side of my knee were ruined."

    Ironically, Adcock would further haunt Haddix' career five years later.

    Haddix, a slight lefty at 5-9, 170 pounds, ended up 18-13 with a 3.57 ERA in '54, but struggled a year later to a 12-16 record and a career-worst 4.46 ERA, precipitating a trade along with Ben Flowers and Stu Miller to the Phildelphia Phillies for Murray Dickson and Herm Wehmeier on May 11 of 1955.

    He rebounded nicely that season with the Phils, registering a 12-8 record and a 3.48 ERA.  But an off-year in 1957 (10-13, 4.06) prompted the Phillies to deal Haddix to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Wally Post on December 16, 1957.  He spent just the one season, 1958, with the Reds, going 8-7 with a 3.52 ERA.

    On Jan. 30, 1959, the Pittsburgh Pirates made a deal that involved Haddix that would ultimately help pave the way to their first World Championship in 35 years, acquiring the crafty lefthander along with catcher Smokey Burgess and third baseman Don Hoak for Whammy Douglas, Jim Pendleton, Frank Thomas and John Powers.

    It was during the '59 season that Haddix authored the greatest single pitching achievement in Major League history when he hurled 12 perfect innings against the Braves.
    
    Matched up against the Braves' tough righthander Lew Burdette, Haddix, now 33-years-old, had his good stuff from the beginning.

    "I threw good right from the start," he later said.  "I used two pitches mainly-- fastball and slider.  I was hardly behind on anybody, and I only went to three-and-two on one man."

    Shortstop Dick Schofield provided the defensive gems early in the game, robbing Johnny Logan twice with a leaping catch of a  line drive in the third inning and a long throw from the hole in the sixth.

    Meanwhile, Haddix' teammates were squandering scoring opportunities, keeping the game knotted at 0-0.

    In the third, Pittsburgh put together three hits off of Burdette but Roman Mejias was gunned down trying to go from first to third on an infield hit to thwart that rally.  In the ninth, the Bucs had runners on first and third following a pair of hits, but Burdette again escaped the jam when Bob Skinner ended the inning with a line drive to Adcock at first.

    Burdette, who was also the beneficiary of three double plays on the night, ended up scattering 12 Pirate hits through 13 innings.

    Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Haddix' perfect game came to an abrupt end when Felix Mantilla led-off the inning with a routine grounder to third but ended up being safe when Hoak's throw was in the dirt and bounced off first baseman Rocky Nelson's knee for an error.

    "I thought I had Mantilla struck out on the pitch before," said Haddix.  "If the umpire had called it a strike, Mantilla would have been out of there.  I'll never forget that play.  Hoak had all night after picking up the ball.  He look at the seams...then threw it away."

    After Eddie Mathews sacrificed Mantilla into scoring position, Haddix issued an intentional walk to Hank Aaron to set-up a double play situation.

    But Adcock, who five years earlier had altered Haddix's career with a line drive off his knee, hammered a 1-0 slider to right-center for a game-winning home run, eluding the desperate leaping attempt of centerfielder Bill Virdon.  

    In a bizarre ending to the game, Adcock was only credited with a double.  Aaron, who had touched second, thinking the ball had dropped at the bottom of the fence instead of going over it, trotted towards the Braves dugout after Mantilla touched home.  Adcock was then declared out when he, in effect, passed Aaron on the base path.  Prior to his game-winning blast, Adcock had fanned twice and hit a pair of routine ground outs.

    "It was the only mistake I made," Haddix said of Adcock's blast.  

    Haddix finished the game with eight strike outs and just the one intentional walk to Aaron.  The final score, determined by National League president Warren Giles the next day, went into the records as 1-0.

    In a final irony, Haddix' game, which had been considered a perfect game for 32 years, was declared a one-hitter in 1991 when an ad hoc committee clarified the official rules for a no-hitter, decreeing a pitcher must pitch the entire game without allowing a hit.  (This rule also eliminated no-hitters that failed to go the entire nine innings due to weather conditions or other reasons).  

    Kitten finished '59 12-12 with a solid 3.13 ERA and was just 11-10 with a 3.97 ERA a year later during the Pirates' pennant-winning 1960 campaign.  But the crafty lefty rose to the occasion in the World Series, winning two games against the mighty New York Yankees to help the Pirates win their first World Championship since 1925.

    The Series was tied at two games apiece when Haddix made his first post-season start on October 10th at Yankee Stadium.  Pittsburgh had eked out 6-4 and 3-2 victories in Games One and Four, while the Yanks had romped to 16-3 and 10-0 triumphs in Games Two and Three.

    Aided by a three-run second-inning outburst, Haddix yielded five hits and two runs while striking out six before giving way to Pittsburgh's bullpen ace Elroy Face with a 4-2 lead and one out in the seventh inning.  Face entered the game with two on, escaping the jam by retiring Gil McDougald on a force out and Roger Maris on a strike out.  He blanked the Yanks without a hit over the final two innings to secure the win for Haddix.  

    After the Yanks hammered the Pirates 12-0 in Game Six to square the Series at three games apiece, the Pirates won a wild Game Seven on Bill Mazeroski's historic game-ending home run leading off the bottom of the ninth against Ralph Terry.

    Haddix relieved Bob Friend in the top of the ninth when the Yanks, trailing 9-7,  opened the inning with back-to-back singles by Bobby Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long .   He retired the first batter he faced, Maris, on a pop up to the catcher.  But Mickey Mantle delivered a single to right-center, driving in Richardson and sending Long all the way to third with the potential tying run.  (McDougald pinch-run for Long at this point).

    Yogi Berra then ripped a hard grounder to Nelson at first.  The Pirate first sacker fielded the hot shot cleanly, stepped on the bag to retire Berra for the second out and turned to throw to second in a bid to nail  Mantle for the completion of what would have been a game-ending double play.  But Mantle, in one of the great heads-up plays in Series history, was already diving back safely into first while McDougald was crossing the plate with the tying run.

    Haddix finally got the Pirates out of the inning by inducing Bill Skowron to bounce into a force out at second, and ended up the winner when Mazeroski hit his dramatic home run.

    "Those two Series wins, they can't be topped by nothin'," Haddix said years later.  "For us to come back after the way the Yankees stomped us, whew, not too many guys beat them in those days."

    Haddix would go on to pitch five more seasons in the big leagues, finishing out the final three seasons of his career as a reliever.  The Pirates dealt him to the Baltimore Orioles for minor league Dick Yencha in December of 1963.  He appeared in 49 games, all in relief, for the O's in 1964 and went 5-5 with a 2.31 ERA and 10 saves.  

    After going 3-2 with a 3.48 ERA in 24 relief appearances for Baltimore in 1965,  the Orioles sold him to the Milwaukee Braves on August 30, 1965.  But he never appeared in a game for the Braves and was returned to the Orioles on September 2, 1965.  His career came to an end on January 3, 1966 when he was released by the Orioles, missing out on their eventual World Series championship later that year against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  

    Haddix ended his career with a 136-113 win-loss record (a winning percentage of .546) and a 3.63 ERA.  He was named to the National League All-Star team three times (1953, '54 and '55) and earned three consecutive Gold Glove awards (1958-60).  He ended his 14-year career with 1,575 strike outs, which currently ranks him 146th on the all-time list.

    He turned to farming for a short period, but got back into baseball as a pitching coach for the New York Mets in 1966, working with a young staff that included Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan.   After two seasons with the Mets, he went on to serve as pitching coach for Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and, following a three-year hiatus, Cleveland.   He coached the Indians from 1975-78 before returning to the Pirates for six more seasons as their pitching coach.  He continued to farm, raising hogs and cattle, throughout his career as a pitching coach and after.

    "I wasn't all that great; the perfect game is my only claim to fame," Haddix said after his playing days were through.  "But if I hadn't sweated I'd have nothing.  And that game is really something.  What the heck, they got a nine-foot picture of me in the Hall of Fame, along side (Joe) DiMaggio and (Ted) Williams."

    Haddix lived to be 69 years old, dying January 8, 1994 in Springfield, Ohio of emphysema.

(Sources for this article include: Baseballreference.com; "30 Years of Baseball's Great Moments" by Joseph Reichler; "The Ballplayers" edited by Mike Shatzkin; "Baseball: 100 Classic Moments in the History of the Game" by Joseph Wallace; "Where Have You Gone, Vince DiMaggio?" by Edward Kiersh;  "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball" by the editors of Total Baseball; and "The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers" by Bill James and Rob Neyer)