Thank you, Mark Buehrle.

Thank you for saving us from what may be the most boring baseball season ever.

I didn't see your perfect game live, but I felt the buzz as it made its way from Chicago through the myriad technologies, from talk radio to Twitter.

Perfect game. There's no better term in sport. It's simple, and it says all that needs be said.

In no other sport can an athlete play a perfect game. Some can be near-perfect. A quarterback can complete every pass. A basketball player can hit every shot. A batter can go 5-for-5 or hit for the cycle. Even a tennis player can go double-bagel.

But not even those performances are perfect. Good? Great? Rare? Yes. Yes. Yes.

They're all that, but they're not perfect.

Only baseball has the perfect game.

No-hitters are cool. Very cool. I still remember being in Yankee Stadium for Dave Righetti's gem on Independence Day in 1983 – against the Red Sox, no less. Every heart beat faster and faster as the last nine batters fell.

It was great, but it wasn't perfect.

Thanks, Mark, for reigniting the awe for the sport I had in my youth, for pulling the 2009 season out of a stupefying malaise.

This has been a season void of "stories," at least new stories.

Sure, Albert Pujols has been the game's best and most inspiring player from Opening Day, and Joe Mauer remains America's baseball sweetheart.

And the Dodgers have been a great story, both for winning and for giving us all the drama of Mannywood.

Beyond that? Nothing to write home about.

The Angels are as good as we expected and the Mets are imploding. The Phillies are solid, though I'm counting on a Cardinals-Dodgers NLCS.

Detroit? OK. Tampa Bay? Let's see you do it again.

The Yankees' hot streak is pretty much a stunner, but in New York it's all about the postseason, so it's too early to get excited.

Other than you, Mark, and the aforementioned sluggers, who has made headlines this season for their performances on the field, not their antics off it?

Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter two weeks ago was cool, yet he remains barely the third-most recognized pitcher on his own team – behind Giants ace Tim Lincecum and bet-the-family-on-it-HOFer Randy Johnson.

Not even Johnson reaching his 300th win was able to shake the season slumber because he accomplished it on his first try. It needed to be dragged out through three or four failed starts to build up any real drama. Alas, one and done.

Really, the most exciting game of the season – before Thursday night – was the All-Star game, for goodness' sake. When was the last time you could say that without being made to supply a urine sample?!

So just as this was shaping up as a regular season to forget, Mark Buehrle happens.

Perfect happens.

AP photo

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