The Man With the Million-Dollar (Digital) Arm

One man's patience, determination, and fierce will allowed him to perform one of the great (electronic) athletic feats known to sport. Here's how.

Compared to the number of baseball games played every year, there just aren't that many people who have accomplished the feat of pitching a perfect game of baseball. Even fewer — like, say, Dock Ellis — have done it under exceptional circumstances. Wade McGilberry, a 24 year-old from Alabama, did it from his couch, and won $1M and a spot in a commercial with Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay in the process.

ESQUIRE: How long did it take you to pitch your perfect game?


ESQ: Do you know how many pitchers have tried and failed to pitch perfect games? And it took you ninety minutes?

WM: Yup.

ESQ: How many times did you have to try?

WM: It took me seven games. Basically: I never got past the fifth inning. Whenever somebody would get a hit, I'd restart everything.

ESQ: But then you got past the fifth. How'd you finish?

WM: I got to the seventh inning, at that point I was thinking, 'Alright. All I have to do is just go through each batter one more time. Just get everybody one more time. At that point I was thinking this could be it. I was trying not to (think about it), though, because it's just like real life: You don't want to jinx it.

ESQ: Don't step on the baseline! Don't let anybody talk to you. Was anybody with you at the time?

WM: My wife was at work. I had the house to myself. I just turned the cellphone off, made sure everything was ready. I was just zoned into the game. I didn't really have any distractions.

ESQ: A lesson hard-learned by some men. What team did you pitch the perfect game with?

WM: The Braves.

ESQ: Wait, really? The Braves? You a fan or something?

WM: I am. They're my National League team. But the way the contest works is: You play in "MLB Today" mode, and you can only choose the teams playing that day. The day I did it, there was only one game: The Mets vs. the Braves.

ESQ: A bounty of choice pitching talent. Who got the start?

WM: Kenshin Kawakami.

ESQ: That might be the peak of his career. It made his Wikipedia page. [Beat] How do you prove to someone that Kenshin Kawakami pitched a perfect game, exactly?

WM: You have to record yourself playing the game. When you pitch a perfect game, there's a code that pops up on the screen, and then you have to go online, enter in the code, all your information, and at that point, you put your recording on a DVD and overnight it to 2K Sports. Then they take all the submissions, send them to [video-game record verification organization] Twin Galaxies, and Twin Galaxies verifies it.

ESQ: Wait. Twin Galaxies, the King of Kong guys?

WM: Yup. Those guys.

ESQ: How was finding out you won?

WM: It was a Sunday. They called, and told me they needed to come check the Xbox, make sure I didn't hack it or anything. That seemed a little weird to me, I was thinking I might've won, but I had no idea. I kept telling my wife "I won, I won," but she was being a realist about it. "No way. Some kid stayed home from school and did it." I'm a pretty low-key guy, but I was pretty stunned at first. Whenever you see someone holding a giant check on your doorstep, with a camera crew, it's kind of unreal. My wife? Her jaw just dropped. She was pulling into the driveway when she saw it.

ESQ: What'd you spend the million-dollar prize on?

WM: Paid off the house. I got my wife a dog. A Boston Terrier. We named the dog Harley. I wanted to buy a motorcycle, but before we got married, she told me I couldn't get a motorcycle. She told me that's the only Harley I'm ever going to get.

ESQ: What about video games? Are you a big gamer?

WM: I've been a gamer most of my life, but the last couple of years, I haven't really been into games that much. [My wife] Katie wasn't spending any time with me if I was playing video games. It was "me or the game."

ESQ: Yeah, I've heard that one before. But she's come around $1,000,000 later, no?

WM: Ever since the contest, I've been playing a little more lately. She tolerates them a little better now.

ESQ: So you gonna try again? They offered the prize again this year. Is it going to happen for you twice?

WM: Not this year. I'm not allowed to.

ESQ: But you can still give advice to all aspiring video game pitchers, right? How should the army of interns I dispatch to win $1M pitch?

WM: Go out, buy it, practice on it. Throw some weak pitches out there. Just work it around the corners. Don't throw it over the plate.

ESQ: What about real pitchers, guys who could use this kind of game on an actual field? Any sage wisdom for them?

WM: I probably wouldn't tell them "don't throw it as hard as you can." Mix up your pitches. That's probably all the advice I can give.

ESQ: No practice?

WM: [Laughs] Yeah: "Always go to practice."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Entertainment