Humber's Humble Road to Perfection

Photo Credit: Elaine Thompson/AP Photo

When the scoreboard reads all zeros, it could mean one special thing: perfection. That is exactly what Philip Humber managed to achieve today, when he became the 21st pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game. He made it look easy Saturday throwing a total of just 96 pitches to complete the game. Not everything was this easy for Humber, as he had a long journey to get to this point. The Rice product was the third overall selection of the 2004 MLB Draft by the New York Mets. His career got off to a rough start when his right elbow required Tommy John Surgery in 2005. In 2006 and 2007, Humber spent most of the seasons in the minors before making September call ups. The Mets weren't impressed by what they saw, so they included him and three other minor league players in a 2008 trade to the Minnesota Twins for star Johan Santana.

Humber's bullpen struggles continued with the Twins, who decided to let him go as well. He had stints with the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals before signing with the Chicago White Sox in January 2011. The White Sox made the surprising move of trying to turn Humber into a starter in their rotation. Humber accepted the assignment and got to work. That first season as a starter with the White Sox, he finished 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA in 28 games. Humber showed flashes of great stuff, but couldn't seem to put it all together on the mound at once.

That all changed April 21, 2012. In just his 30th career major league start, he completed a perfect game. He got the Mariners hitters to strike out nine times, ground out five times, and fly out thirteen times. You might want to ask Humber what changed to make this happen. This was his response, "For so long, I was trying to make it about me. I was going to make it happen because of how hard I was working. ... But because of the road I took, I couldn't deny the fact that it was God doing it, that God had a plan." Philip Humber's path to perfection was unconventional to say the least. When all is said and done, he doesn't even want to take the credit for making it happen. That is humility for you.