Looking at the facts, one could only agree with Mussina’s assessment. An unlikely villain, Everett entered his ninth inning at-bat 1-for-9 lifetime against Mussina and had struck out seven of those nine times.

Also, Mussina had flirted with perfection twice before. In 1997 against the Indians, Mussina lost his perfect game with one out in the ninth when Sandy Alomar, Jr. hit a single.

Just one unlucky year later, Frank Catalanotto stroked a double to end Mussina’s perfection with two outs in the eighth.

So, given this disappointing turn of events, poor Mike Mussina concluded that he would never get to the perfect plateau that three of his pinstripe predecessors had reached.

Normally, I would agree that Mussina may have had his last and best shot at a perfect game, but for some reason I’m not thinking so cynically anymore.

I recently read that Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb also thought he was star-crossed when it came to outstanding pitching feats. In consecutive starts in 1988, Stieb lost no-hitters with two outs in the ninth.

The next year he was one out from a perfect game and surrendered a hit. Finally, though, Stieb no-hit the Indians in 1990 to remove any doubt that he was doomed to always come close but never fully succeed.

So maybe Mussina shouldn’t give up hope just yet. Nobody’s perfect, after all, and who knows if he’ll ever get another shot at greatness.