1956 Yankees

October 8, 1956. A Wednesday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. 64,519 fans packed the concrete bowl, most of them with no idea they'd witness something that had never happened before -- and hasn't happened since. Don Larsen, a man who'd gone 3-21 two years earlier in Baltimore and gotten shelled in Game 2 five days prior, retired all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers he faced. A perfect game in the World Series. But that wasn't even the whole story of the 1956 New York Yankees. Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown. Yogi Berra hit two home runs in Game 7. Johnny Kucks threw a shutout to clinch it. The club went 97-57 and took the title in seven games over Brooklyn -- revenge for 1955, and the last Subway Series anyone would see for 44 years.

Building the Roster

Casey Stengel was 66 years old and running the show for the eighth straight season. He'd already won five World Series rings as Yankees manager (1949 through 1953), lost to Brooklyn in 1955, and had no intention of letting that stand. His roster was deep and flexible -- the kind of club Stengel built better than anyone, full of platoon pieces and role players who fit around the stars.

And the stars were considerable. Mantle, at 24, stood at the peak of his physical gifts -- a switch-hitter who could run a 60-yard dash in under six seconds, hit tape-measure shots from both sides of the plate, and cover the cavernous center field at the Stadium despite chronic knee damage from the 1951 World Series. Berra caught 135 games and hit .298 with 30 home runs. Bill "Moose" Skowron hit .308 with 23 home runs from first base. Hank Bauer cranked 26 home runs from right field. Billy Martin played second with the subtlety of a bar fight. Elston Howard, in his second year as the club's first Black player, filled in wherever Stengel needed him.

The pitching staff ran through Whitey Ford, who went 19-6 with a 2.47 ERA and led the league in both ERA and winning percentage. Kucks won 18 games. Tom Sturdivant added 16 wins. Larsen finished 11-5 in the regular season -- a solid fourth starter, nothing more (Frank Lary in Detroit led the league in wins with 21, if you're keeping score). Nobody circled Larsen's name in October.

The Season

Mantle announced himself early. He hit home runs at a pace the American League hadn't seen since Babe Ruth's prime, and by midsummer the question wasn't whether he'd lead the league in power but whether he'd chase 60. He didn't get there -- he finished with 52, the most in the AL since Hank Greenberg hit 58 in 1938 -- but the batting average held at .353 and the RBI total settled at 130. All three numbers led the league. The Triple Crown.

Only two players have won it since: Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and Miguel Cabrera in 2012. That's three winners in seventy years. The Triple Crown doesn't happen anymore.

Mantle's MVP vote was unanimous -- every first-place ballot. The writers didn't need to think about it. His 1.169 OPS was the highest in the league since Ted Williams's best years. He led in runs scored (132), slugging (.705), and total bases. Stengel, who'd managed some of the finest players in the sport's history, called him "the best one-legged player I've ever seen" -- a backhanded compliment that acknowledged both the talent and the knees that would eventually take it away.

The club clinched the pennant comfortably ahead of Cleveland and Chicago. They weren't the most dominant regular-season team in franchise history, but 97 wins and this roster left no doubt about who'd represent the American League in October.

October

Brooklyn took the first two games at Ebbets Field -- 6-3 and 13-8. Larsen started Game 2 and got knocked out in the second inning. Four runs, early exit, the worst possible performance on the biggest stage. The Dodgers looked ready to defend their 1955 title.

Then the Series shifted to the Bronx, and the Yankees won three straight. Ford steadied things in Game 3. Sturdivant won Game 4. And on October 8, Stengel handed the ball to Larsen -- the same man he'd pulled after two innings five days earlier.

Larsen reportedly didn't know he was starting until he found a baseball in his warm-up shoe, Stengel's way of telling a pitcher he had the ball. Some accounts say he'd been out late the night before (this was Larsen, after all -- a man with a documented fondness for nightlife). None of it mattered once he took the mound.

He used a no-windup delivery he'd adopted during the regular season -- stood straight up on the rubber, looked in at Berra, and threw. No leg kick, no elaborate motion. Just the pitch. The unconventional mechanics confused Brooklyn's hitters, and Larsen's fastball-slider combination found the corners all afternoon. Gil McDougald and Andy Carey made plays in the infield. Mantle ran down a Gil Hodges line drive in the fifth with a backhanded catch in deep left-center -- the play that saved everything.

Twenty-seven batters came up. Twenty-seven sat down. The final out belonged to Dale Mitchell, a career .312 hitter who almost never struck out. Umpire Babe Pinelli -- working the last game of his career -- called strike three on a fastball Mitchell insisted was outside. Mitchell disputed that call for the rest of his life. But Pinelli's hand went up, and Berra sprinted to the mound and leaped into Larsen's arms, legs wrapped around his waist, in what became one of the most reproduced photographs in baseball history.

The only perfect game in World Series history. 97 pitches. Nobody's come close since.

Brooklyn forced a Game 7 by winning Game 6 behind Clem Labine's 10-inning complete-game shutout, 1-0 -- a gutsy performance that kept the Dodgers alive for one more day. Then the roof caved in. Kucks threw a shutout at Ebbets Field while the offense buried Don Newcombe -- the same Newcombe who'd gone 27-7 and won both the first-ever Cy Young Award and NL MVP that regular season. Berra hammered two 2-run home runs off Newcombe. Howard added a solo shot. Skowron put the final nail in with a grand slam off Roger Craig in the seventh. Final score: 9-0. The end of the line for the Brooklyn Dodgers in more ways than one (they'd move to Los Angeles after 1957).

Key Moments

I was so weak in the knees out there in the ninth inning, I thought I was going to faint.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who pitched the perfect game in the 1956 World Series?

Don Larsen of the Yankees threw a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series on October 8, retiring all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters in a 2-0 win at Yankee Stadium. It remains the only perfect game in World Series history -- and the only perfect game in any postseason game. Yogi Berra caught every pitch.

Did Mickey Mantle win the Triple Crown in 1956?

Yes. Mantle led the American League in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBI (130) to claim the Triple Crown. He won the AL MVP unanimously -- every first-place vote -- and posted a 1.169 OPS, the highest in the league since Ted Williams's peak seasons in the 1940s.

What was the 1956 World Series result?

The Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 games to 3, winning Games 3, 4, 5, and 7 after dropping the first two in Brooklyn. Game 5 featured Don Larsen's perfect game. Game 7 was a 9-0 blowout, with Johnny Kucks pitching a complete-game shutout, Yogi Berra hitting two 2-run home runs, and Bill Skowron crushing a grand slam.

Was the 1956 World Series the last Subway Series?

The 1956 World Series was the last time two New York-area teams met in the Fall Classic until the Yankees and Mets played in the 2000 World Series -- a gap of 44 years. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, ending the classic Yankees-Dodgers Subway Series rivalry.