The count was 1-2, as Don Larsen went into the windup and delivered home to catcher Yogi Berra. Pinch hitter Dale Mitchell of the Brooklyn Dodgers check swung, but home plate umpire Babe Pinelli called strike three. Berra darted out from behind home plate, and in one of the most iconic moments in baseball and sports history, jumped into Larsen as he was jogging off the mound, wrapping his legs and arms around the then 26-year-old right-hander. Larsen caught him, and carried him a few feet before the rest of the Yankee team swarmed the two men. The Yankees defeated the Dodgers 2-0, and took a 3-2 lead and eventually won in seven games.
That was only the sidenote. Larsen had made history, and it happened on this date 57 years ago today.
64,519 in attendance at Yankee Stadium were witnesses to what is still the only perfect game in World Series history. 27 up, 27 down, Larsen retired every man he faced; the game lasted just two hours and six minutes, with the Yankees offense coming from a Mickey Mantle solo home run and a Hank Bauer RBI single.
Facing a lineup that featured four future Hall-of-Famers, Larsen only had a three-ball count on ONE hitter, Pee Wee Reese – the second batter of the game. Overall, Larsen finished with seven strikeouts on the day. Years later, Berra would say that Larsen didn’t shake him off once the entire game. In an interview with Newsdayexactly one year ago, Berra said “He was throwing pretty hard and had a good breaking ball that day. Everything was working for him.” In the same interview, Larsen admitted he still thinks about the perfecto “10-15 times a day.”
On October 6, 2010, Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS, becoming the second man to ever toss such a game in the playoffs. However, no man besides Larsen has been able to do it in the World Series.
Larsen would spend three more seasons in New York, before going on to play with the A’s, White Sox, Giants, Astros, Orioles and Cubs. He retired after 1967 with a career-record of 81-91, and a 3.78 ERA.
Larsen is eerily tied to two more Yankee perfect games. David Wells, who threw one against the Minnesota Twins in May of 1998, attended the same high school as Larsen – Point Loma HS in San Diego, CA. On July 18, as part of Yogi Berra day at Yankee Stadium, Larsen threw out the first pitch to Yogi. A couple hours later, Cone was mobbed by his teammates having thrown a perfect game against the Montreal Expos, as Larsen looked on from an above luxury box.
