October 8, 1956 - Don Larsen Pitches Only Perfect Game In World Series History

[selmaborntidefan]

I was obviously not alive. But it was a big deal at the time.

FWIW - there's only one player still living who played in that game.......Don Larsen himself (he's 87).

Memories from any of you?

Hard to think about the fact the World Series used to END around October 10 and now doesn't even start until around the 28th.

 

[Bama Reb]

I was obviously not alive. But it was a big deal at the time.

FWIW - there's only one player still living who played in that game.......Don Larsen himself (he's 87).

Memories from any of you?

Hard to think about the fact the World Series used to END around October 10 and now doesn't even start until around the 28th.

Memories? From when I was 7? Surely you jest. :biggrin:

 

[Crimson1967]

Dale Mitchell, who took a called third strike to end the game, went to his grave claiming the pitch was outside. I once saw a post on another board from someone who had a family member that worked with Mitchell. He said the relative said if you ever wanted to get him all riled up, all you had to do was mention Don Larsen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Memories? From when I was 7? Surely you jest. :biggrin:

Well, when I was seven...

 

[Go Bama]

Off topic, but why does the season end so much later?

 

[GrayTide]

I vaguely remember the game. You have to remember that all World Series games were day games in those days and not many TVs. Seems like there was a radio in the school and while we didn't get to listen to the play by play someone would occasionally whisper an update. I also remember my father telling me about it being a perfect game when he got home from work.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Off topic, but why does the season end so much later?

And now, Selma's history of baseball.

In 1956, teams only played 154 games. There were only 16 teams. And they didn't fly or RARELY flew. The furthest team west was St Louis. It was quite common for Thursday to be a complete off day (no games whatsoever) because of travel. Basically, the season began around April 17th (seriously - that was the first day of the 1956 baseball season). The 2016 season began on April 3rd (and the 1996 season twenty years ago began on March 31).

In 1958, the Dodgers and Giants both moved from New York to the West Coast. They wanted two teams so as to make road trips to the Coast economical (it was originally supposed to be the Washington Senators who moved to LA...so in 1961, the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. Baseball also added two teams to the American League - the Los Angeles Angels (more name changes than John Cougar Mellencamp) and the 'new' Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers). They also ADDED EIGHT GAMES to the regular season schedule.

In 1962, the NL added the Houston Colt 45s (now the Astros) and the New York Mets to replace the Dodgers AND Giants.

So in 1962, there were TEN TEAMS in each league.

There were no playoffs. The teams that finished first in the two leagues met in the World Series - period.

In 1969, baseball added four teams: the Royals (replacing the KC Athletics, who moved to Oakland in 1967), Padres, Montreal Expos, and Seattle Pilots. When they now had 24 teams, they went to six teams in four divisions. This was GREAT - because now you had FOUR pennant races instead of two. So they added the round of playoffs that from 1969-1984 was 'best three of five.'

After 1969, the Seattle Pilots went belly up and a week before the 1970 season began, they moved to Milwaukee, replacing the Braves (who had moved to Atlanta in 1966) and owned by future commissioner (and used car dealer - seriously) Bud Selig.

In 1977, baseball added the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners (replacing the Pilots after six solid years of lawsuits) to the American League. This meant we had 26 teams with 14 in the AL and 12 in the NL.

In 1985, the LCS was changed to best of seven.


Can you kind of see now why the season ends later? First, they add a five-game playoff and then they add two potential games to each of those playoffs. And they have to arrange them for TV.

In 1994, baseball moved to a wildcard system in response to several years where many pennant races were (literally) over by Memorial Day. They split each league into the current THREE divisions and then let the team with the best record that did not win the division into an eight-team playoff. Now, they added a first round 'best of five' series....adding FOUR more series of five games each.

This pushed the World Series back from ending around October 10 in 1956 to STARTING on October 20 in 1996.

And then in 2012, they invented what I call the 'let's make sure Boston or New York makes the playoffs' by adding the 'play-in game,' where the second wildcard team plays the first in a 'do or die' match-up.


And that's the answer to your question. Baseball added four teams in the 1990s - mostly to pay off the settlement from the Collusion hearings (from 1985-87 the owners conspired to not sign free agents and intentionally keep salaries down).

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Dale Mitchell, who took a called third strike to end the game, went to his grave claiming the pitch was outside. I once saw a post on another board from someone who had a family member that worked with Mitchell. He said the relative said if you ever wanted to get him all riled up, all you had to do was mention Don Larsen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's pretty cool.

Of course, maybe it was outside. But Mitchell was a pinch-hitter who had not played the rest of the game, too. Those were the only pitches he saw that day. If umpire Babe Pinelli had a wide strike zone (a la Eric Gregg in the 1997 NLCS) and was consistent then it didn't really matter.

 

[Crimson1967]

https://youtu.be/roZUjcYj95k

Here is a video of the last pitch. Berra does seem to move his mitt to the left to catch it but you can't see the plate.

Sal Maglie had a complete game 5-hitter in a 2-0 loss. The next day there was a 1-0 Dodgers win, a 10 inning game where both pitchers went the distance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[selmaborntidefan]

https://youtu.be/roZUjcYj95k

Here is a video of the last pitch. Berra does seem to move his mitt to the left to catch it but you can't see the plate.

Sal Maglie had a complete game 5-hitter in a 2-0 loss. The next day there was a 1-0 Dodgers win, a 10 inning game where both pitchers went the distance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What a lot of folks don't realize (and I read this, I obviously cannot recall something that happened 13 years before I was born) is this - prior to 1955, no team had started the World Series 0-2 and then won it. And then in 1955, Brooklyn - OF ALL TEAMS - became the first to do it. In 1956, Brooklyn themselves won the first two games and were halfway to another title and had bludgeoned Larsen in game two. Poor Sal Maglie threw one of the best performances ever by a losing pitcher in the World Series.

And the amazing thing to me is that Larsen - a career 81-91 pitcher - started game seven of the World Series in both 1957 and 1958 (he lost the first time and got no decision but was pulled in the third in 1958; in fact, he was pulled in the third both years).

 

[GrayTide]

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=195610080nya

Two of the greatest baseball teams of all time.

 

[Go Bama]

And now, Selma's history of baseball.

In 1956, teams only played 154 games. There were only 16 teams. And they didn't fly or RARELY flew. The furthest team west was St Louis. It was quite common for Thursday to be a complete off day (no games whatsoever) because of travel. Basically, the season began around April 17th (seriously - that was the first day of the 1956 baseball season). The 2016 season began on April 3rd (and the 1996 season twenty years ago began on March 31).

In 1958, the Dodgers and Giants both moved from New York to the West Coast. They wanted two teams so as to make road trips to the Coast economical (it was originally supposed to be the Washington Senators who moved to LA...so in 1961, the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. Baseball also added two teams to the American League - the Los Angeles Angels (more name changes than John Cougar Mellencamp) and the 'new' Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers). They also ADDED EIGHT GAMES to the regular season schedule.

In 1962, the NL added the Houston Colt 45s (now the Astros) and the New York Mets to replace the Dodgers AND Giants.

So in 1962, there were TEN TEAMS in each league.

There were no playoffs. The teams that finished first in the two leagues met in the World Series - period.

In 1969, baseball added four teams: the Royals (replacing the KC Athletics, who moved to Oakland in 1967), Padres, Montreal Expos, and Seattle Pilots. When they now had 24 teams, they went to six teams in four divisions. This was GREAT - because now you had FOUR pennant races instead of two. So they added the round of playoffs that from 1969-1984 was 'best three of five.'

After 1969, the Seattle Pilots went belly up and a week before the 1970 season began, they moved to Milwaukee, replacing the Braves (who had moved to Atlanta in 1966) and owned by future commissioner (and used car dealer - seriously) Bud Selig.

In 1977, baseball added the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners (replacing the Pilots after six solid years of lawsuits) to the American League. This meant we had 26 teams with 14 in the AL and 12 in the NL.

In 1985, the LCS was changed to best of seven.


Can you kind of see now why the season ends later? First, they add a five-game playoff and then they add two potential games to each of those playoffs. And they have to arrange them for TV.

In 1994, baseball moved to a wildcard system in response to several years where many pennant races were (literally) over by Memorial Day. They split each league into the current THREE divisions and then let the team with the best record that did not win the division into an eight-team playoff. Now, they added a first round 'best of five' series....adding FOUR more series of five games each.

This pushed the World Series back from ending around October 10 in 1956 to STARTING on October 20 in 1996.

And then in 2012, they invented what I call the 'let's make sure Boston or New York makes the playoffs' by adding the 'play-in game,' where the second wildcard team plays the first in a 'do or die' match-up.


And that's the answer to your question. Baseball added four teams in the 1990s - mostly to pay off the settlement from the Collusion hearings (from 1985-87 the owners conspired to not sign free agents and intentionally keep salaries down).

Thanks for the awesome response! I don't recall the Dodgers and Giants moving, I was 3 yo. I very clearly recall the Braves moving to Atlanta. I've been a Braves fan since. This year I watched all but one game.

I'm not sure baseball wouldn't be better off trying to end their season before the NFL starts. There's just no way to compete with the NFL.

Sorry about your Rangers.