[Déjà Bru]

Some notes from The Athletic's article on the game (I don't link to it because it's subscription-based):

For the Yankees, Don Larsen threw a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. David Wells’ perfect game came in 1998. David Cone threw the most recent Yankees’ perfect game in 1999. Germán has added his name into Yankees lore, becoming the fourth pitcher in team history to throw a perfect game.

Those "back-to-back" games of '98 and '99 look even more remarkable considering the amount of time elapsed before and after for Yankee perfect games.

Germán received an ovation from the Coliseum crowd when he walked from the dugout to start the ninth inning. Sensing the moment, the stadium staff played Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” over the speakers as Germán warmed up.

Now, despite there were only 12,479 paying customers there, and probably many of them were traveling Yankee fans, that was classy.

Rizzo also saved Germán’s perfecto bid earlier in the night with a diving stop along the line, which came with a solid throw to Germán covering first base.

I saw that play in the replay telecast as I was typing this. There seems to often be a key defensive play to remember in historic games like this and for me, Rizzo's is the one. There was also this:

Jonah Bride took Germán to a full count with two outs in the eighth inning but grounded out to Donaldson. Donaldson’s throw was a little wide of first base, but Rizzo stepped across to make the catch.

One of the things that I changed about my OOTPB play is to stop settling for a 1B who is a liability in the field. Those lunkheads are ubiquitous in the game and it can be tough to locate a player like Rizzo but I make it a priority now.

Throughout the game, the Yankees seemed to skip the tradition of isolating the pitcher in the midst of a bid for a perfect game, frequently interacting with him inside the cramped A’s visiting dugout.

I never understood that nonsense anyway. For one thing, I would think isolating the guy may make for even more pressure on him. Better to keep it loose by acting normally.

Germán’s mastery occurred at a peculiar time. The 30-year-old had been torched in his two previous starts, lasting just two innings and giving up seven runs on June 16 at the Red Sox before coughing up eight earned runs in 3 1/3 innings versus the Mariners.

He looked terrible in those games. But remember, his masterpiece was against the Oakland A's.

It also came in a season in which Germán was suspended 10 games for violating the league’s sticky stuff policy for using too much rosin on his pitching hand. Germán wasn’t expected to start the season in the Yankees’ rotation, but injuries to Frankie Montas, Carlos Rodón and others gave him a chance to stick in the role.

And this:

It’s been a long trip toward this indelible moment for Germán. Prior to Wednesday night, Germán may have been most known across baseball for getting suspended a total of 81 games for violating the league’s domestic violence policy. He was put on administrative leave in September 2019 and served the remaining 63 games of his suspension in 2020. At the time, it was the harshest ban levied on a player who had been investigated following domestic violence allegations but never criminally charged.

Germán has certainly had his ups and downs but nobody can take this away from him now. It's yet another example of the following, which OOTPB does a good job of replicating (I checked my own perfect games just now, and it's true; several were by momentarily great journeymen):

Cone and Wells were enjoying dominant seasons when they threw their perfect games against the Expos and Twins, respectively. Both were top-of-the-rotation starters who were Cy Young contenders for the Yankees. Germán and Larsen share similarities in that both were not necessarily considered the best pitchers of their time, but found a way to etch their names into MLB history.