Don Larsen

 Don Larsen was born August 7, 1929 (exactly 16 years before me) in Michigan City, Indiana.  However, he grew up in San Diego, California where he excelled playing baseball and basketball.

In 1947, Larsen signed a contract to play professional baseball with a minor league team affiliated with the St. Louis Browns of the American League.  He made his Major League debut in 1953 with the Browns.  In 1954, the Browns relocated to Baltimore to become the Orioles.

At the end of the 1954 season, Larsen was traded to the New York Yankees.  In the first part of the 1955 season, he played for the Yankee minor league affiliate in Denver.  However, Larsen, after returning to New York, pitched well, winning nine of eleven games.

In 1956, Larsen pitched really well, winning eleven out of sixteen games, especially at the end of the regular season.  That included a shutout victory against his former team, the Orioles.

On October 8, 1956 (67 years ago today), Larsen was chosen to be the starting pitcher for the Yankees in game 5 (at Yankee Stadium) of the World Series against the Brooklyn (now the Los Angeles) Dodgers.  The best of seven series was tied 2-2.

Mickey Mantle hit a home run in the fourth inning off Dodger pitcher Sal Maglie (whom I met as a child at a Little League banquet in Oswego, NY).  The Yankees scored a second run in the sixth inning on a single by Hank Bauer.  

One of the beautiful things about baseball is that there is no clock.  You must get the opposition to make 27 outs (3 outs in each of 9 innings).  To get the 27 outs in only 27 batters (the minimum) is a perfect game, a rarity in baseball.  

On that memorable day, 67 years ago, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.  He finished the game striking out Dale Mitchell, the twenty-seventh and final batter.  

Two days later, the Yankees defeated the Dodgers in game 7 and won the 1956 World Series.  Six years later, Larsen pitched for the San Francisco Giants and helped defeat the Yankees in game 4 of the World Series (at that same Yankee Stadium).  

Don Larsen died January 1, 2020 as a result of cancer.  He was ninety years old.

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Next post will be Sunday, October 22, 2023.