RIP Don Larsen

[Regan MacNeil]

 

[Moderator1]

Bill Millsaps, the former sports editor turned executive editor in Richmond, tells a great Don Larsen story.

Millsaps was the son of a school principal growing up in Tennesee and a stern principal at that. Dad made it clear he was Dad at home but at school, his kids were like all the others.

So one day there's a knock on the classroom door and Mr. Millsaps says, "Mrs. (Smith), I need to see Billy in my office."

Millsaps is scared out of his mind. What did I do? How much trouble am I in? Why am I being called out of class?

They get to the office and Mr. Millsaps closes the door. The TV is on. He says, "Sit down Billy, Don Larsen is pitching a perfect game!"

RIP Don Larsen.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

2020 is less than a day old and already we’ve had two huge deaths. This is gonna be a rough year.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

A Yankee icon. RIP.

Stern obviously a national story. Larsen obviously huge in New York area.

In sports, not sure I remember two bigger names passing on the same day.

 

[Moderator1]

Jose Fernandez and Arnold Palmer? Not even sure that matches

 

[Spartan Squad]

You think Berra jumped into his arms when Larson walked through the Pearly Gates?

RIP

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Jose Fernandez and Arnold Palmer? Not even sure that matches

Forgot those were the same day. Palmer for sure. Fernandez was sudden and shocking. So young.

 

[goalmouth]

Met Larsen about 2000 in our town, was a great moment when he posed for pictures. A relative as a teenager saw his perfect game.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Shirley Povich’s lede for his perfect game is one of my all-time favorite ledes.

Looking up his career, he actually went 3-21 for the Orioles in their first year after moving from St. Louis, and then the Yankees got him in a 17 (!) player trade.

He ended up becoming a pretty good reliever in the 1960s, which is often forgotten about.

RIP

 

[Neutral Corner]

A Hall of Famer who won eleven games in his best season of fourteen in the majors. He sat down 27 straight batters on just 97 pitches. One glorious day of absolute perfection.

Rest.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Don Larsen isn't in the Hall of Fame.

 

[MTM]

For those with The Athletic, Joe Posnanski wrote a great piece about Larsen.

I really enjoyed his lead

In the end, yes, of course, all of us are so much more than our best day, more than our worst day, more than the first sentence in our obituaries. We are not metaphors. We are not parables. We are flesh and blood, triumph and failure, joy and sorrow and rage and boredom. We are all the years, all the habits, all the quirks, all the jokes, all the wins, all the mistakes, all the late nights, all the family, all the friends.

Don Larsen lived more than 90 of those years.

And yet, he seemingly never tired of people asking him about one perfect day.

Posnanski: Don Larsen understood what one perfect day meant...

 

[micropolitan guy]

Never seen that photo before, the stock one is him pitching in the ninth, with second baseman Billy Martin in the background.

This one, he's pitching to Gil Hodges, with one out in the 8th. Five more outs to go. Four HOF players in Brooklyn's order that day: Reese, Snider, Robinson and Campy; one that should be, Hodges; an NL batting champ, Furillo, and a pretty good stick in Junior Gilliam.

1956 World Series Game 5 Box Score / Don Larsen Perfect Game

 

[Neutral Corner]

Don Larsen isn't in the Hall of Fame.

Well, ****. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Never seen that photo before, the stock one is him pitching in the ninth, with second baseman Billy Martin in the background.

This one, he's pitching to Gil Hodges, with one out in the 8th. Five more outs to go. Four HOF players in Brooklyn's order that day: Reese, Snider, Robinson and Campy; one that should be, Hodges; an NL batting champ, Furillo, and a pretty good stick in Junior Gilliam.

1956 World Series Game 5 Box Score / Don Larsen Perfect Game

Two hours and six minutes. Today, it would go an hour and a half longer.

Also forgotten, Sal Maglie pitched a great game as well.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Shirley Povich’s lede for his perfect game is one of my all-time favorite ledes.

Looking up his career, he actually went 3-21 for the Orioles in their first year after moving from St. Louis, and then the Yankees got him in a 17 (!) player trade.

He ended up becoming a pretty good reliever in the 1960s, which is often forgotten about.

RIP

he was later part of the trade that brought Maris to New York.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

MLB Network showing the TV broadcast of the game right now.

 

[Junkie]

Two hours and six minutes. Today, it would go an hour and a half longer.

And Larsen would have been taken out after six for a match-up lefty, or because his pitch count was too high.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I don't know if, even with today's norms, a manager would have the stones to pull a pitcher with a perfect game going. Same with pitch count. Larsen averaged 3.6 pitches per batter. Hard to do much better than that.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I don't know if, even with today's norms, a manager would have the stones to pull a pitcher with a perfect game going. Same with pitch count. Larsen averaged 3.6 pitches per batter. Hard to do much better than that.

He threw 97 pitches. Since Larsen was, to be nice, hardly the Yanks' number one starter, it's likely that today he'd have been pulled at any moment after the sixth when somebody from Brooklyn reached base. But of course no one did.