White Sox announcers have always seen perfection in Buehrle

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- Mark Buehrle was throwing a bullpen session or live batting practice during Spring Training when Ken “Hawk” Harrelson first watched the left-hander in action some 25 years ago.

“I watch him for about 10 minutes I guess,” the Hall of Fame broadcaster told me during a recent conversation. “And I said, ‘This guy can’t break a pane of glass.’”

Yes, Buehrle was not known as a stuff guy. As an example, his four-seamer in 2015 averaged 84.5 mph, according to Statcast. Then again, many innings had been logged on Buehrle’s left arm by that point.

From 2001-15, Buehrle threw at least 198 2/3 innings, posted double-digit victories and made at least 30 starts in every season. Starting pitchers really aren’t made nowadays like Buehrle, who figured out how to break said pane of glass in numerous effective ways.

Twelve of those seasons came with the White Sox, becoming one of their top pitchers in franchise history. Buehrle had his jersey No. 56 retired in 2017, and on Friday night, had his statue unveiled on the Rate Field right field concourse.

Harrelson has frequently talked about Buehrle as his favorite player to watch, leading to Buehrle’s connection to the iconic White Sox television voice and Steve Stone, the equally iconic TV analyst.

They teamed up to call many a Buehrle start, but none of them resonate like July 23, 2009, when Buehrle hurled a perfect game against the Rays. Harrelson and Stone were as perfect as Buehrle, and nobody will forget Harrelson’s call after Pat Burrell lined out to third baseman Gordon Beckham to end the eighth.

“Call your sons. Call your daughters. Call your friends. Call your neighbors. Mark Buehrle has a perfect game going to the ninth.”

“I know announcers are not supposed to say anything about it, because it’s a jinx when an announcer says he’s got a no-hitter going or a perfect game going,” Harrelson said. “He had the perfect game, and I said, ‘[The heck with] it, I’ll take the heat.’ I said, ‘Screw it. We are going to get as many people watching this thing as I can.’”

Here’s the funny thing about perfect games or no-hitters in progress being covered in silence. Nobody talked about this perfecto more than Buehrle, as he spoke about numerous times over the years.

“He was one of those guys who didn’t go with the conventions of the game,” Stone told me. “You have a no-hitter? He would tell people up and down the dugout, ‘Hey, I have a no-hitter or perfect game.’ You are not supposed to do that.

“Teammates aren’t supposed to talk to pitchers. That’s the unwritten rules of the game. Yet, Mark went and said, ‘Look, everybody knows I have a no-hitter, I know I have a no-hitter, so I might as well talk about it.’”

On that sunny afternoon with 28,036 euphoric White Sox fans in attendance, Ben Zobrist, who gained fame on the other side of Chicago with his Most Valuable Player performance in the 2016 World Series, almost ruined the moment. Zobrist hit a slow roller toward Beckham with one out in that same eighth inning, and Harrelson basically willed the grounder foul.

Burrell launched another liner toward left, before the 24th out connection, falling safely out of play.

“Thank you very much,” said Harrelson on the broadcast. “Just foul.”

“As close as you can get,” Stone added.

This admiration and respect toward Buehrle from Harrelson and Stone certainly ran deeper than 116 pitches of July perfection. Buehrle was the consummate pitcher, the consummate teammate and as anyone who knows him can attest, a first-rate individual.

“If you had to have one guy pitch one game for your life or your kids’ life, it would be Mark Buehrle,” Harrelson said. “He’s one of the best guys you will ever meet. He wasn’t afraid of any hitter with that stuff he had. He went right after them. He could throw strikes. If he wanted the outside corner, he got the outside corner. He had the best control of any pitcher that the White Sox ever had.”

“We see guys with astonishing skills, wonderful athleticism, that never really realize as much as they possibly can during the game itself,” Stone said. “Mark was the antithesis of that. He was a guy who squeezed out every bit of the ability he had, brought it to the mound with him on a daily basis and won over 200 games.”