Don Larsen: greatest single game performance in World Series history, passes away.

Don Larsen
Born: August 7, 1929 (Age: 90-148 days)
Died yesterday.

Game 5, 1956 World Series tied 2-2:

Monday, October 8, 1956

Attendance: 64,519

Venue: Yankee Stadium I

Game Duration: 2:06

Day Game, on grass

Yankees 2, Dodgers 0

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Sal Maglie, L (1-1)	8	5	2	2	2	5	1	2.65	29	67			0.086	0.69	2.1

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Don Larsen, W (1-0)	9	0	0	0	0	7	0	0.00	27	94			0.586	0.85	4.6

Larsen threw 97 pitches. It was the first perfect game since 1922:
Charlie Robertson Sunday, April 30, 1922 White Sox 2, Tigers 0.

The term perfect game was unknown to Larsen until after the game when he heard it in the clubhouse. It's unclear whether Yankee catcher Yogi Berra knew the term when he flew into Larsen's arms near the first base foul line as Larsen walked towards the dugout after retiring all 27 Dodger batters faced.

Dodgers

1	Jim Gilliam	2B
2	Pee Wee Reese	SS
3	Duke Snider	CF
4	Jackie Robinson	3B
5	Gil Hodges	1B
6	Sandy Amoros	LF
7	Carl Furillo	RF
8	Roy Campanella	C
9	Sal Maglie	P

Each of the first 8 Dodgers went 0 for 3. Maglie 0 for 2. Pinch hitter Dale Mitchell struck out as the final batter.

There were close calls. Snider and Amoros hit foul "home runs". Robinson banged a shot off 3B Andy Carey that SS Gil McDougald threw to first. Hodges lined a shot to deep left center that Mickey Mantle ran down. That was about all the Dodgers did in 9 innings against Larsen.

It doesn't make Larsen a great pitcher, except, obviously, that one day. But to have the greatest World Series game in history, he only needed that one game. His teammate Whitey Ford (Born: October 21, 1928 (Age: 91-73 days)) is in the Hall of Fame and the most likely 1956 Yankee pitcher to no-hit the Dodgers in Yankee Stadium but Ford didn't do it, Larsen did it. Ford, however, broke Babe Ruth's record for consecutive shutout innings over multiple years of World Series pitching: 32 to 29. Larsen was VERY unlikely to do anything like that.

In modern World Series history several legendary pitchers were more likely to pitch a perfect game, including Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965, 1966) and Bob Gibson (1964, 1967, 1968). Both were power pitchers who set single World Series game records for strike outs: Koufax 14 Yankees in 1963, Gibson 17 Tigers in 1968; both in game one. Maybe those strike out games are better than Larsen's ... but they weren't "perfect".

Yankees in game 5:

Yankees

1	Hank Bauer	RF
2	Joe Collins	1B
3	Mickey Mantle	CF
4	Yogi Berra	C
5	Enos Slaughter	LF
6	Billy Martin	2B
7	Gil McDougald	SS
8	Andy Carey	3B
9	Don Larsen	P

Mantle homered in the 4th: Yankees 1, Dodgers 0.

Game 6: Dodgers 1, Yankees 0 in 10 innings
Game 7: Yankees 9, Dodgers 0

Don Larsen pitched in FIVE World Series with a good record overall:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Series	Rslt	Opp	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W	WPA
1955	25	NYY	AL	WS	L	BRO	0	1	.000	11.25	1	1	0	0	0	0	4.0	5	5	5	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	19	1.750	11.3	4.5	4.5	4.5	1.00	-0.32
1956 MVP	26	NYY	AL	WS	W	BRO	1	0	1.000	0.00	2	2	0	1	1	0	10.2	1	4	0	0	4	0	7	0	0	0	37	0.469	0.8	0.0	3.4	5.9	1.75	0.58
1957	27	NYY	AL	WS	L	MLN	1	1	.500	3.72	2	1	1	0	0	0	9.2	8	5	4	1	5	0	6	1	0	0	44	1.345	7.4	0.9	4.7	5.6	1.20	-0.01
1958	28	NYY	AL	WS	W	MLN	1	0	1.000	0.96	2	2	0	0	0	0	9.1	9	1	1	0	6	1	9	0	0	0	42	1.607	8.7	0.0	5.8	8.7	1.50	0.33
1962	32	SFG	NL	WS	L	NYY	1	0	1.000	3.86	3	0	0	0	0	0	2.1	1	1	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	11	1.286	3.9	0.0	7.7	0.0	0.00	0.04
5 Yrs (5 Series)							4	2	.667	2.75	10	6	1	1	1	0	36.0	24	16	11	3	19	1	24	2	0	0	153	1.194	6.0	0.8	4.8	6.0	1.26	0.61

Rk	Year	Series	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
1	1955	WS g4	Oct 1	NYY	@	BRO	L,5-8	GS-5	L(0-1)	99	4	5	5	5	2	2	2	0	11.25	19
2	1956	WS g2	Oct 5	NYY	@	BRO	L,8-13	GS-2		99	1.2	1	4	0	4	0	0	0	0.00	10
3	1956	WS g5	Oct 8	NYY		BRO	W,2-0	SHO	W(1-0)	2	9	0	0	0	0	7	0	0	0.00	27
4	1957	WS g3	Oct 5	NYY	@	MLN	W,12-3	2-GF	W(1-0)	99	7.1	5	2	2	4	4	1	1	2.45	32
5	1957	WS g7	Oct 10	NYY		MLN	L,0-5	GS-3	L(1-1)	4	2.1	3	3	2	1	2	0	0	3.72	12
6	1958	WS g3	Oct 4	NYY		MLN	W,4-0	GS-7	W(1-0)	99	7	6	0	0	3	8	0	0	0.00	29
7	1958	WS g7	Oct 9	NYY	@	MLN	W,6-2	GS-3		4	2.1	3	1	1	3	1	0	0	0.96	13
8	1962	WS g1	Oct 4	SFG		NYY	L,2-6	8-9		99	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	9.00	5
9	1962	WS g3	Oct 7	SFG	@	NYY	L,2-3	7-7		2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4.50	4
10	1962	WS g4	Oct 8	SFG	@	NYY	W,7-3	6-6	W(1-0)	0	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3.86	2

World Series Home Runs allowed:
1955 game 1: HR: Roy Campanella (2, off Don Larsen, 4th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to Deep LF); Gil Hodges (1, off Don Larsen, 4th inn, 1 on, 0 outs to Deep CF-RF)

1957 game 3: HR: Hank Aaron (1, off Don Larsen, 5th inn, 1 on, 1 out to Deep CF-RF)