.
Posted on 01/01/2020 7:05:34 PM PST by NJRighty
Don Larsen, the former Yankees great who threw the only perfect game in World Series history, died Wednesday at the age of 90, according to reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
What was more iconic? The perfect game or the picture of Yogi Berra jumping into Larsen’s arms after the last out. Baseball touches the American spirit unlike any other sport.
Yogi Berra died a few years back. Yogi was also remembered for his famous tantrum after Jackie Robinson was called safe stealing home. Yet at Yogi’s funeral mass sitting in the pews was an elderly, frail Mrs. Robinson. Jackie and Yogi quietly and without fanfare became friends. Always wondered how people like Al Sharpton explained things like that.
We would be far better off with race relations if politicians and so-called race leaders were out of the equation.
A legend.
Ain’t no money in getting along.
A life-long Yankees fan, I’m sorry about Mr. Larsen. My sympathies for his family.
.
Pretty much an average pitcher except for that one magic day. RIP.
I watched that game on TV. I was late for a Chem lab lecture class and got chewed out from the Prof after the class.
I've always loved to hate them.
Even though they are pretty good.
The father of a good friend of mine was at Yankee Stadium that day. I just texted him and he reminded me that he still has his father's program and scorecard from that day.
Remember this clearly—yet I was all of 5 One other memory stands out__ about age 10. In the back office at Commiskey DAd had played for them like for 2 weeks and was trying to save a dime .
We got to our nosebleed seats and near the end of the game ask if I noticed the 2 gents in suits ahead of us in line. Yes just others lookiing to save a dime. He noted it was Mantle and Maris. I could have feinted but said nothing. Just stunned.
64,519 people there that day, and I was one of them.
Still have the ticket stubs.
Forgotten was that Sal Maglie also had a perfect game into the fourth inning, Mickey Mantle homered, Sandy Amoros almost homered, and Gil MacDougall at short got a deflected ball of Andy Carey’s glove to make the out.
And so many people smoked in those days that by the ninth inning you were looking into a blue haze from the outfield seats.
Memory eternal.
RIP Mr Larsen. Remember you from every Yankee Old Timers Game when I was a kid.
Mike Vaccaro (NY Post sports writer) called him up in 2009 for an interview. Here is a part of the article by Vaccaro that was posted tonight. (Mr. Larsen thoroughly enjoyed his one day of fame).
... “How did you get this number?”
That’s always a tricky one to answer. You never know if you’re spoiling a confidence. But before I could worry about that, the voice softened and strengthened and a loud laugh landscaped by so many New York nights out of the past took over.
“I’m kidding. I’m glad you called,” Don Larsen said. “I was 81-91 as a major league pitcher. If that’s all people knew about me, nobody would ever call.”
...Dick Young, the most influential sportswriter New York City has ever known..grabbed Trimble’s typewriter and without saying a word typed these words:
“The unperfect man pitched a perfect game yesterday.”
In later editions, that would be tweaked to what has become one of the most famous ledes in the history of newspapers: “The imperfect man pitched a perfect game yesterday.”
That was Larsen. For one day, he was the greatest pitcher who ever lived. The other 411 games of his career? The other 1,539 innings he logged for seven teams from 1953 through 1967? Not so much. And that was always OK with Larsen. You never met a guy happier to have accomplished something.
“Hell, yeah, I’m glad it happened to me,” he told me over the phone in 2009. “I think about it every day — and not just once a day. As long as they play baseball, they’ll remember the name ‘Don Larsen.’ That works for me.”
I’m guessing that game wasn’t recent.
RIP.
I was ‘sick’ that day so I missed school and had to watch it on TV
I was 10 years old in 1956 and my Mom allowed me to skip school to watch this historical game on a black and white TV. As it ventured on my Mom was ironing and I was a nervous wreck. She kept asking...Is something good happening. RIP Don, Yogi and my Mom, who I voted MVP for allowing me to witness the historical game.
He wasn’t by chance scheduled to testify against Hillary, was he?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.