Perfect game at perfect time

OCTOBER 8, 1956 • THE BRONX, NEW YORK – Yankee right-hander Don Larsen faced 27 batters on this date in 1956 and got everyone one of them out – a PERFECT GAME, the only one ever pitched in the World Series, and the only no-hit game ever pitched in the post-season.

Don Larsen being hugged by catcher Yogi Berra

Larsen’s gem gave the Yankees a 2-0 victory. They eventually beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the best of seven series four games to three.

Don Larsen was the last pitcher you’d expect to throw a perfect game, let alone in the World Series. It was a surprise to many that he even started the 5^th game. He started game two and didn’t last two innings, giving up 4 runs on one hit and 4 walks. In a 14-year career he had just two double-digit winning seasons – 11 wins in ’56, the year of his perfect game, and 10 wins in 1957. He had more double digit losing seasons. In fact he lost 21 games in 1954. But Yankee skipper Casey Stengel chose Larsen to start game 5. The result led New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young to write, “The imperfect man pitched the perfect game.”

Contributing sources:

http://www.retrosheet.org/

http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/larsedo01.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Larsen

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/alltime/worldseries

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