Um, did a Martha Stewart tweet ruin the Yankees' perfect game?

Michael Pineda was dealing on Monday. Until ...
 By 
Sam Laird
 on 
Um, did a Martha Stewart tweet ruin the Yankees' perfect game?
Michael Pineda was dealing on Monday. Credit: AP/REX/Shutterstock

The first rule about baseball's elusive perfect game is YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT THE PERFECT GAME UNTIL IT'S PERFECT.

Here's why, as illustrated by one Martha Stewart.

A "perfect game" in baseball is when a pitcher completes a full game while retiring every batter he faces -- over nine innings that's 27 batters faced and 27 batters retired. It hasn't happened in Major League Baseball since 2012, and is one of most difficult accomplishments in baseball.

That's why, when a pitcher is threatening to throw a perfect game -- say for example, he's perfect through several innings -- teammates and fans go to great lengths not to mention the masterpiece-in-progress for fear of jinxing it.

Stewart, apparently, never got that memo.

That's right -- the Yankees' Michael Pineda was more than two-thirds of the way through hurling a perfect game on Monday when Stewart posted that tweet.

Then -- "about three minutes later," per USA Today's Ted Berg, who was at the game -- Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria hit a double to ruin Pineda's would-be perfect day.

This did not go unnoticed.

Now, did Stewart's tweet really upset the fragile cosmic order to jinx Pineda?

That would be a ridiculous notion predicated on non-scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Which is to say it's entirely possible. Underestimate the power of non-scientific mumbo-jumbo at your own risk, friends.

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Sam Laird

Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.

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