Perfection

While thumbing through the TV remote this past Tuesday evening, I stumbled upon the MLB Network, and saw that they were showing  a telecast of Game 5 of the 1956 World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Even those with the most rudimentary knowledge of baseball history know that this was the game where "the imperfect man pitched a perfect game."  That was the game where 27 year old Don Larsen, who would go on to have a mediocre career, pitched what is arguably the most famous pitched game in all of baseball history - a perfect game in the World Series.

The MLB Network telecast was done in a studio setting with Bob Costas hosting both Larsen and Yogi Berra while a kinescope telecast of the game - in glorious black and white! -  was shown.  At several intervals in the game, Costas would interview both Larsen and Berra to ask about what was going on in their minds as the game was being played.  It was absolutely terrific stuff.  I would guess that MLB Network originally aired this telecast sometime in the mid to late '00's.

When I found the game, it was the bottom for the fourth inning, and this is what I saw in those very few minutes it took to play out in front of me:

• Yankee Joe Collins grounding out to Jackie Robinson and being retired, 5-3.  At that moment, I realized that this was the very first time that I had ever actually seen Jackie Robinson playing in a game.
• Mickey Mantle hit a no-doubt-about-it home run to put the Yankees up 1-0.
• Yogi Berra hitting a line shot to left center that was sure to be at least  double, and probably a triple, only to be robbed on a spectacular shoestring catch by Duke Snider.

If you haven't been counting, that was four Hall of Famers on display in the space of 2/3 of an inning and less than ten minutes of real time.  I immediately set the DVR humming so I could watch the rest of this one at my leisure and savor every bit of it.

Some highlights:

• Larsen's game was almost spoiled in the top of the fifth when Sandy Amoros hit a ball into the right field stands that was foul by about two feet, but before that, Gil Hodges hit a gap shot to left center that Mantle had to run  about six miles from where he was playing in center to run down the ball and make the catch.   It was an even more spectacular catch than the one Snider made in the previous inning.  After that, the Dodgers never really threatened to get a baserunner in the game.
• In the top of the fifth, Pee Wee Reese had a line drive hit off of his glove, bounce straight in the air and back into his glove for the out, and he then threw to first to double off Billy Martin and end the inning.
• In the bottom of the sixth with one out and a man on third, Mantle hits scalding shot to first that Hodges niftily fields, steps on first to retire Mantle then goes to Campanella at the plate who goes to Robinson at third to retire the baserunner and end the inning.  The play went 3-2-5-2-5.  Mantle, Hodges, Campanella, Robinson.  Only one of those guys ISN'T in the HOF.
• The announcers for the game were Mel Allen and Vin Scully.  Not bad, huh?  Allen did the first four and half innings, Scully, who was only 28 years old at the time, did the final four and a half.  They both worked the booth alone.  No sidekick, no color commentator, and "great" doesn't even begin to describe how good they were.
• Scully never used the words "no hitter" or "perfect game."  Instead, he would end each inning by saying something like "through seven innings Larsen has now retired all 21 men to face him."
• I didn't track it, but I don't believe that Larsen ever got to a three ball count on a batter.
• The crowd didn't seem to really get into the moment until the eighth and ninth innings, and then they were roaring with each Dodger out.
• The losing pitcher for the Dodgers that day was Sal Maglie, and he had a pretty good game himself.  A complete game eight inning performance, 2 runs, 5 hits, 5 K, and 2 BB.  Good enough to win most games.  Not that day, though.
• The game took 2 hours and 6 minutes to play, and Larsen threw 97 pitches.
• When the game was over, Larsen, as he told Kostas,  knew that he had thrown a no hitter, but not a perfect game.  In fact, he wasn't even aware of the concept of a "perfect game."  No surprise because there hadn't been one thrown in MLB since 1922.  Sportswriters had to explain to him what a "perfect game" was.
• Seven Hall of Famers played in that game: Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Enos Slaughter.  Three Hall of Famers were in the dugouts that day: Whitey Ford, Don Drysdale, and Sandy Koufax.  Managers Casey Stengel and Walter Alston are also in the Hall of Fame.  That's twelve Hall of Famers involved in one game.

At the end of the game, when Larsen struck out Dale Mitchell to finish it off and Berra ran out jump into his arms, MLB switched to a split screen to show the current day Larsen and Berra watching the moment.  Larsen said that this was the first time that he had actually seen this game on television.  Not surprising given the technology that existed back in 1956. It was also something that he said he thought about every day of his life since then.

In this Spring of No Baseball and No Sports, watching this one was really a special treat.

A Crowded Departure Lounge: To Five Absent Friends

The year of 2020 is only in its ninth day, and Absent Friends have been, not to be indelicate, piling up like cord wood, so before I get completely behind in such matters, let me note the passing of five Absent Friends so far in this new year.

David Stern

1942-2020

When David Stern became Commissioner of the National Basketball Association in 1984, the league was far behind Major League Baseball and the National Football League in popularity as best exemplified by the fact the the NBA Finals were televised on tape delay on network television, a fact that is unimaginable today.  When he retired thirty years later (the longest tenure of any North American sports league commissioner), the NBA was and is a global juggernaut.  It was Stern who insisted that the Olympics allow professional players to participate in the Olympics, which led to the creation of perhaps the most famous basketball team ever, the 1992 "Dream Team", which further led to the development of basketball throughout the world, which led to the development of such NBA stars as Yao Ming, Dirk Novitski, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and current stars such as Kristaps Porzingis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic.

With no NBA presence in Pittsburgh, we perhaps cannot appreciate all that Stern accomplished, but he has been called perhaps, with the exception of Pete Rozelle, the most effective and accomplished commissioner in the history of all professional sports leagues in North America.

Don Larsen

1929-2020

Last pitch of his most famous game

One of the great sports news leads of all time came from Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News who wrote in 1956 "The imperfect man pitched a perfect game yesterday" when he wrote of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game Five of the 1956 World Series.  It remains to this day perhaps the most famous game ever pitched.

Having been rocked by the Dodgers earlier in the Series, Larsen didn't expect to pitch again in the Series, but Casey Stengel nevertheless named him as the Game Five starter, and Larsen delivered as no pitcher, before or since, ever has in the Series.  It was the highlight of what can be described as, at best, a very mediocre career.  Over seventeen seasons, Larsen compiled a record of 81-91 with a 3.78 ERA, and in two of those seasons he had records of 3-21 and 1-10.  (Although in his five years with the Yankees, he was 45-24.)

Larsen's accomplishment highlights the complete and utter randomness that is a Perfect Game.  It has only been done twenty-three times in history.  Seven Hall of Famers have pitched perfect games, but seven of them were also pitched by guys who, like Larsen, had career W-L records below .500.

It should also be noted that the time of game of Larsen's perfecto was mere 2 hours and 7 minutes.  Talk about the "good ol' days"!

Sam Wyche

1945-2020

Former Cincinnati Bengals coach and Steelers nemesis Sam Wyche died at the age of 74 last week.  The Wyche coached Bengals almost won a Super Bowl but left a little too much time on the clock for Joe Montana and the 49'ers in Super Bowl XXIII in 1989.  In 1990, the Bengals made the playoffs and won a game, and that was the last time that the Cincy Bengals won a playoff game.  Let that fact sink in on you.

George Perles

1934-2020

With two of his better known proteges

Whenever someone who was an integral part of the Steelers Super Bowl history leave us, it is worth noting, so we recognize former Steelers defensive line coach and defensive coordinator George Perles who died at age 85 earlier this week.  Perles went on to a distinguished career as a head coach and athletic director at his alma mater, Michigan State, but he will be most remembered here for his contributions as an architect of the famed Steel Curtain defenses of the 1970's Steelers.

Buck Henry

1930-2020

Actor and writer Buck Henry died yesterday at the age of 90. Henry's writing credits are vast and include the television show "Get Smart", and movies such as "Catch-22" and "Grumpy Old Men", but in my mind he will be best remembered for writing the screenplay and appearing in the 1967 Mike Nichols classic "The Graduate".

With Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"

Ben Braddock deals with a suspicious desk clerk

It was Buck Henry who penned the immortal line from that film......"Plastics".

IMDB lists 62 acting credits (he was a host on Saturday Night Live ten times), 30 writing credits, and four directing credits for Henry.  He was one very talented man.

RIP David Stern, Don Larsen, Sam Wyche, George Perles, and Buck Henry.