NEW YORK -- David Wells delivered one last pitch, his 120th on a magical, historical, perfect day at Yankee Stadium.

The ball settled lazily into the glove of Paul O'Neill near the right-field foul line and Wells -- the player who fought with George Steinbrenner in the Yankee clubhouse, the pitcher who makes Joe Torre's work a little more difficult, the fan who once wore an actual Babe Ruth hat during a game -- owned the 15th perfect game in major-league history.

"Couldn't happen to a crazier guy, huh?" Wells said after the Yankees beat the Twins 4-0. "I'm just going to cherish this for the rest of my life."

 David Wells
David Wells gets a lift after carrying the Yankees to victory.

The burly -- or is overweight? -- left-hander pitched the first perfect game at Yankee Stadium since Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, and the first in regular-season history for New York.

"I'm honored and couldn't be more happy," he said. "It is one of the finest moments of my career, to be mobbed by every single member of my team.

"My teammates should have mauled each other because they were all a part of it."

Wells (5-1) struck out 11, throwing 79 strikes and 41 balls in dominating from start to finish. New York fielders made no exceptionally tough plays to protect the first perfect game since Kenny Rogers did it for Texas against the Angels on July 28, 1994.

"In the seventh inning, I started getting really nervous. I knew what was going on," Wells said. "I was hoping the fans would kind of shush a little bit. They were making me nervous."

The ballpark was nearly full: 49,820 on hand for Beanie Baby Day.

"Boomer is the farthest thing from a Beanie Baby," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, who sat in the upper deck for Larsen's perfect game.

PERFECT
The 15 perfect games in major-league history:
Player Team Date
David Wells N.Y. vs. Min. 5-17-98
Kenny Rogers Tex. vs. Cal. 7-28-94
Dennis Martinez Mon. vs. L.A. 7-28-91
Tom Browning Cin. vs. L.A. 9-16-88
Mike Witt Cal. vs. Tex. 9-30-84
Len Barker Cle. vs. Tor. 5-15-81
Catfish Hunter Oak. vs. Min. 5-8-68
Sandy Koufax L.A. vs. Chi. 9-9-65
Jim Bunning Phi. vs. N.Y. 6-21-64
Don Larsen N.Y. vs. Brk. 8-8-56
Charlie Robertson Chi. vs. Det. 4-30-22
Addie Joss Cle. vs. Chi. 8-2-08
Cy Young Bos. vs. Phi. 5-5-04
John M. Ward Pro. vs. Buf. 6-17-80
John Richmond Wor. vs. Cle. 6-12-80
Special mention: Harvey Haddix pitched 12 innings for Pittsburgh vs. Milwaukee on May 26, 1959 but lost 1-0 in the 13th; Pedro Martinez pitched 9 perfect innings for Montreal vs. San Diego on June 3, 1995 but allowed leadoff double in 10th and Mel Rojas finished off the 1-hitter.

Wells kept trying to keep his mind occupied. He'd go in the clubhouse after retiring the side, then returned to the dugout after Yankees batters made one out in the bottom of innings.

His teammates tried to avoid him, except for David Cone and Luis Sojo.

"After the seventh inning, I told him it was time to break out the knuckleball," Cone said. "He let out a big laugh. That told me he needed it."

When Wells came back to the dugout after the eighth, Cone said he was disappointed not to see any knucklers.

"You ain't shown me nothin'," Cone told him.

Wells, who went to a three-ball count on only four batters, gave up his only hard-hit ball in the eighth, a sharp one-hopper by Ron Coomer that second baseman Chuck Knoblauch knocked down. Knoblauch recovered and had plenty of time to throw out his former teammate.

"It hopped up in my face," Knoblauch said. "It was just another play."

Wells got a standing ovation as he came out to pitch the ninth inning, and the crowd stayed on its feet. Jon Shave hit a routine fly to right. Javier Valentin struck out.

It all came down to Pat Meares. He took a called strike. Then lofted a high fly to O'Neill.

 
   
David Wells is a player who really cares about Yankee history, and Babe Ruth in particular. He wears No. 33 because he can't wear the Babe's No. 3, which was retired.

Here's a more obscure connection between Ruth and Wells. Ruth was also involved in a perfect game. He started a game in 1917 and walked the first batter. He was ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire. Ernie Shore came into the game, picked the runner off at first base and retired the next 26 batters. That was considered a perfect game up until 1995 when a rules committee changed it.

But Sunday was so special for David Wells, who said that Babe was the one who saved baseball and that's why he loves him. Wells put a little infusion into the game in front of 50,000 fans on Sunday.

 

Wells pumped his left fist twice at the ground after the final out. His teammates swarmed him, and he was carried off the field by Bernie Williams and Darryl Strawberry.

By the time he made it into the clubhouse, three magnums of champagne already were on the carpet in front of his locker. Comedian Billy Crystal was there to get his ticket stub signed.

"I got here late. What happened?" Crystal said to him.

O'Neill was ready to joke with Wells, too, as they came off the field.

"What should I do with this ball? Throw it in the stands?" the outfielder said to Torre.

O'Neill then decided to play it straight with Wells, saying merely he had a present for him.

"Boomer might have freaked if I asked him," O'Neill said.

There had been 12 perfect games, including Larsen's gem, since 1900.

"This kind of accomplishment is too far-fetched for me," Wells said. "You know what's going on, you try to keep things in check, but there's no way in heck you can."

Wells, who got only his fourth career shutout in 219 starts, came in with a 5.23 ERA, and his consistency was certainly in question. On May 6 in Texas, he was unable to hold a 9-0 lead and tersely flipped the ball to Torre when he was lifted in an eventual 15-13 win.

But Wells bounced back last Tuesday against Kansas City, winning 3-2. He retired his last 10 batters in that one, and Sunday's game gave him an AL-record 37 in a row.

Wells broke the previous AL mark shared by Kansas City's Steve Busby (1974) and Seattle's John Montague (1977). The major-league record is 41 by Jim Barr of San Francisco in 1972 -- Wells can break the mark in his next start at Boston.

Wells began his career in 1987 with Toronto and signed as a free agent with the Yankees before the 1997 season. Right away, he became embroiled in a bit of controversy when he broke his hand in an offseason street fight outside a bar at Ocean Beach, Calif.

But Wells also eagerly embraced Yankees tradition. He once wore an actual Babe Ruth hat on the mound before Torre made him take it off, and also wanted to wear Ruth's No. 3. Instead, Wells settled for No. 33.

"With the history of this ballclub and the stadium, it couldn't happen in a better place for me, growing up a Yankee fan," Wells said.

Wells tangled with owner George Steinbrenner last season. They argued loudly in the clubhouse and seemed ready to come to blows.

After the game, Steinbrenner telephoned him in clubhouse.

"I thanked him for signing me ... for putting me in pinstripes," Wells said. "I told him he didn't know what he was in for."

Wells and Torre said the key to the perfect game came in the seventh, when Wells struck out Paul Molitor, a seven-time All-Star, after falling behind 3-1.

"He painted me a good fastball away," Molitor said. "He came back with another one that was maybe a couple of inches outside. The way the game was going, it would have been very difficult not to call it a strike. He didn't give in to me."

Wells, who shook off catcher Jorge Posada just twice, went to three balls three other times. He struck out Valentin looking at a full-count pitch in the third. He then came back from a 3-0 count to retire Matt Lawton on a popup on a 3-1 pitch leading off the fourth. In the seventh, Wells went to 3-2 on Brent Gates, who came up before Molitor.

"Today we got to see a real workhorse type of pitcher do something really special," Twins manager Tom Kelly said. "He moved the ball inside, outside -- the changeup was working good, the curveball was good. He kept us off balance all day. Maybe two balls you could say were hit pretty hard and I'm stretching at that."

Within minutes of the final out, Wells had already donated his cap to the Hall of Fame. He was asked if he would give anything else.

Perfection hadn't changed his personality.

"Send me," he shouted. "My soul!"

Notes: Wells is 20-6 at Yankee Stadium. ... His previous low-hit games were a pair of three-hitters. ... Bernie Williams scored from third on a second-inning wild pitch by LaTroy Hawkins (2-4). Williams hit a solo homer in the fourth -- his third. New York added two runs in the seventh on Darryl Strawberry's RBI triple and Chad Curtis' run-scoring single. ... Dwight Gooden pitched the last Yankees no-hitter, on May 14, 1996, against Seattle in New York. ... Wells pitched the fourth no-hitter against the Twins -- Catfish Hunter pitched a perfect game against them, and Vida Blue and Nolan Ryan also accomplished the feat.