Dallas Braden: I threw my perfect game while hungover

Former Oakland Athletics left-hander Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in baseball history despite being far from 100% on the field.

Braden, who last pitched in 2011, admitted to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that he threw his perfect game while suffering from a hangover that nearly kept him from the ballpark entirely.

"There are things you don't do (before starts)," Braden said. "Partaking in libations or adult beverages, that was something I never did before a day game.

"The night before Mother's Day, though, I did. We were getting after it a little bit."

Braden famously threw his perfect game on May 9, 2010, which happened to be Mother's Day. His mother died while he was in high school, and as he explained to Slusser, the emotions of facing the holiday led him to drink the night before the game.

Peggy Lindsey - Braden's grandmother, and the woman who raised him after his mother died - found the left-hander asleep at his house when he was supposed to be en route to the ballpark.

"She walked in, saw the aftermath of the night before, and saw I was still in bed," said Braden, who was 26 at the time. "She knew, though, you're not talking to me at all the day I'm starting - she knew the drill. So she just got back in the car. She was in Oakland before I left the house, she was at the Coliseum before I'd gotten out of bed."

Braden eventually got to the ballpark late and was "rushed" during his warmups. Once the game started, though, he needed just 109 pitches to reach perfection. He struck out six Tampa Bay Rays and was taken to a three-ball count just four times. After the game ended, he emotionally embraced his grandmother on the field.

Braden is not alone in claiming to have thrown a perfect game while hungover. In 1998, New York Yankees All-Star David Wells was purportedly in the same state during his perfecto after having spent the previous night partying.