Guys. Get this. During the MLB season this year, it seemed like, to me, that there were more players hitting for the cycle than usual. I would turn on my Internet Computer, dial up the World Wide Web, and read Online Articles about baseball, and I would be like: “Man, another cycle? Fancy that.” Then I would take a bite of my astronaut ice cream, and wait as my 28.8K modem downloaded the latest single by Blackstreet. (It’s been three months now, and the download is nearly complete.)

As it turns out, my brain did not lead me astray. In fact, this year’s baseball season had a few other statistical anomalies. (I’m sorry, is that funny? Are you a standup comic? Is that what you do now?)

As the Book of Odds (via) notes, there was a no-hitter, perfect game, unassisted triple play and eight cycles this season. But stuff got EVEN CRAZIER.

However, the 2009 season will be remembered as truly special thanks to the execution of two unusual feats. The first has become so rare as to be almost extinct: the pure steal of home. This play, which requires speed, timing and instinct, is becoming increasingly rare, yet in 2009, three players pulled it off successfully.

Three pure steals of home in one season already marks 2009 as unusual, but combined with the second accomplishment—Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, a feat that’s even more rare than the straight steal of home—the unusual becomes the extraordinary.

When the White Sox’s Mark Buehrle did not allow a single Tampa Bay Rays batter to reach base on July 23rd, 2009, he became the first American League pitcher in 10 years to throw a perfect game. The odds a Major League game will be a perfect game are 1 in 11,500.

As the Panic at the Discos said, “Pretty Odd.”