Article:October 8th, 1956, and World Series Perfection

The 1956 World Series featured yet another matchup of New York borough rivals, Brooklyn's Dodgers and their neighbors from the Bronx, the Yankees. In 1955, the Dodgers had finally achieved their "next year" and beat the Yanks in a six game Series. The Yankees powered their way through the season, the Yankees winning 97 games, finishing nine games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. Behind Mickey Mantle's Triple Crown, four hitters with 20 homers and four pitchers with double digit wins, the Yankees went into the Series with hope of regaining their lost Championship trophy.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, had fought tooth and nail all season with the Milwaukee Braves and Cincinnati Reds. As a matter of fact, heading into the season's final weekend, the Dodgers trailed the Braves by a game. A three game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates combined with the Braves losing two of three in St. Louis gave the Dodgers the NL crown on the season's final day. The Dodgers had five pitchers with double digit wins, including 27 by big Don Newcombe. The offense was led by Duke Snider and Gil Hodges and a solid defense.

The series began in Brooklyn, with the Dodgers winning both games, behind a Sal Maglie complete game, and a Game Two slugfest after the Yankees knocked out Newcombe in the second inning. The Yankees came back and won Games Three and Four at the Stadium, tying the series and setting the stage for what would become the greatest postseason pitching performance in history.

In the Game Two offensive show in Ebbetts Field, the Yankees had started swingman Don Larsen. Larsen had posted an 11-5 record during the season, starting 20 games and appearing in another 18 in relief. The Dodgers scored four unearned runs off Larsen in his inning and two thirds, with Larsen walking four hitters.

At the time, Larsen was a 27 year old pitching in his fourth major league season and second with the Yankees. His rookie year was spent in the final season of the St. Louis Browns, in 1954, he moved with the team to Baltimore, and in 28 starts, posted a W/L record of 3-21. Larsen struggled with his control early on, in three of his first seven seasons he walked more hitters than he struck out. Larsen went to the Yankees following the 1954 season in the famous 16 player trade, in 1955, spending part of the season in the minor leagues, he turned in a 9-2 record in 19 games. Following the 1956 season, Larsen would spend another eleven seasons in the major leagues, with seven different teams, retiring with a career 81-91 record and a reasonably decent 3.78 ERA.

Faced again with going up against a lineup which had pushed him around just three days earlier, and with four Hall of Famers in the starting lineup, (Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Roy Campanella), Larsen nontheless went about his business as normal.

Larsen had experimented at times with a no-windup delivery, and he went to it right from the beginning of Game Five. He inexplicably had impeccable control, reaching a three ball count on just one hitter throughout the game.

Scoreless heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, Mickey Mantle crushed a Sal Maglie pitch deep into the rightfield seats for a 1-0 lead. In the top of the fifth, Mantle made a great running catch in leftcenter, robbing Gil Hodges of extra bases. The Yanks scored another run in the sixth, making the score 2-0, and heading into the seventh inning, the Dodgers had yet to have a baserunner. In the seventh, Pee Wee Reese flied to deep center, as did Sandy Amoros in the eighth. With still no baserunners heading into the ninth, all attention was no longer on the score, but on Don Larsen. Carl Furillo opened the ninth inning flying out to Hank Bauer in short right field. Roy Campanella was next and grounded weakly to second base. With the pitcher's spot scheduled next, Dodgers manager Walter Alston sent Dale Mitchell to the plate to hit.

Mitchell was a 34 year old lefty hitting outfielder who had come over to the Dodgers in a cash transaction at the end of July. Mitchell had spent the first ten and a half seasons of his career in the American League with the Cleveland Indians, making two All-Star teams in the process. Unbeknownst at the time, this appearance would be the second to last of his career, as he retired following the World Series. Mitchell had two 200 hit seasons in his career and retired with a .312 lifetime batting average.

In his eleven year career, spanning 1127 games and 4357 plate appearances, Dale Mitchell struck out 119 times, with a career strikeout rate of once every 33 at bats, Mitchell ranks as the fifteenth toughest hitter to strikeout in baseball history.

After running the count to 2-2, the fifteenth toughest hitter in took a strike on the outside corner, giving Don Larsen his perfect game, and his eternal place in history as the author of one of the greatest games ever pitched.

After striking out Mitchell, Larsen nonchalantly walked off the mound, where catcher Yogi Berra jumped into his arms as he reached the first base line. Larsen asked Berra what the **** he was doing, not knowing he had pitched a perfect game until Berra told him.

Larsen would spend three more seasons in New York, winning two additional World Series games in the process, before heading to the Kansas City Athletics in the deal which brought Roger Maris to New York. In a bit of irony, Larsen, now pitching for the San Francisco Giants, would appear against the Yankees in the 1962 World Series, getting into three games in relief and winning game four in Yankee Stadium.

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