” I Still Can’t Believe It Happened To Me,”
Don Larsen Post-game Interview October 8, 1956
Immortal Pitching Yankee Stadium, New York- This sequence of three photos shows Don Larsen 1) cocking for the pitch 2) delivering, and 3) following through on the mound during his historic perfect no-hitter. Don pitched to only 27 Dodgers in posting his 2-0 victory for the books. His triumph put the Bombers ahead 3-2 in games. photo: 10/8/1956 International News Photos – Frank Juroski
For all the accomplishments that have happened in the history of baseball, there is one that has never been duplicated.
Don Larsen’s masterpiece of pitching in game five of the 1956 World Series. 27 men up. 27 men down. A perfect game in the World Series.
After The Game
With his hands still shaking after the game Larsen told reporters, ” I was so damn nervous in the ninth inning. I almost fell down out there. My legs were rubbery. My fingers didn’t feel like they were on my hand. I said to myself ‘Please help me out, somebody.'”
Larsen did not have any intervention as strike three whizzed by pinch hitter Dale Mitchell for the final out. Though some thought the called strike by umpire Babe Pinelli was actually a ball.
Larsen signs for O’Malley photo: Associated Press
After the game even Dodger owner Walter O’Malley went to the Yankee clubhouse to congratulate Larsen and get his autograph on a baseball. “Ive seen eight no hitters, but this was the first perfect one. What a piece of work that boy did!” O’Malley said.
The last perfect game previous to Larsen’s was thrown 34 years earlier on April 30 1922 by Charlie Robertson of the White Sox against the Tigers.
Yankees manager Casey Stengel praising Larsen said, “I’ve seen no-hitters before too, but never a perfect game either, and never a game like this under such pressure in the World Series. There are no words big enough to use on this fella. I’ve never seen anything like he did out there today in my life.”
Yankee Stadium – Oct. 8. He Made World Series History
Here is how Don Larsen of the Yankees looked in dressing room just minutes after he had pitched the first perfect game in World Series history. Not a Brooklyn Dodger reached first in his 2-0 win which gave the Yankees a 3-2 edge in games in current series. AP Wirephoto 1956
One fact that many baseball fans do not realize is that Larsen was starting pitcher of game two, where he did not fare very well. Larsen lasted one and two thirds innings allowing four unearned runs and one hit, while walking four and striking out no one in a 13-8 Yankee loss.
