On July 18, 1999, David Cone of the New York Yankees pitched the 16th perfect game in Major League Baseball (MLB) history and the third in team history, and the first no-hit game in regular season interleague play. Cone pitched it against the Montreal Expos at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, with 41,930 fans in attendance. The game took 2 hours and 49 minutes, from 2:05 PM ET to 4:54 PM ET. The game was interrupted by a 33-minute rain delay in the bottom of the third inning in the middle of an at-bat for Tino Martinez. As part of the day’s “Yogi Berra Day” festivities honoring the Yankees’ former catcher, before the game, former Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw the ceremonial first pitch to Berra; the two comprised the battery for Larsen’s perfect game in 1956.
Cone’s perfect game was the 247th no-hitter in MLB history, and 11th in Yankees history. The previous perfect game in both MLB and Yankee history was 14 months prior on May 17, 1998, when David Wells pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium; Wells’ perfect game was also the most recent no-hitter in franchise history at the time. Cone’s perfect game gave the Yankees the record for the franchise with most perfect games, breaking a two-perfect game tie with the Cleveland Guardians. Since Cone’s perfect game, the Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, and Chicago White Sox have recorded their second perfect games, with the White Sox tying the Yankees with a third perfect game in 2012. However, the Yankees once again took the lead on June 28, 2023, when pitcher Domingo Germán threw his own perfect game against Oakland, now standing alone with four. To date, Cone’s perfect game is the only one achieved in regular-season interleague play.[1]