There are some people for whom you know how the first line of their obituary will read. Don Larsen is one those.
The only man to throw a perfect game in a World Series died yesterday at the age of 90.
(Four cents!)
Richard Goldstein in The New York Times:
Don Larsen, an otherwise ordinary pitcher who achieved the extraordinary when he threw the only perfect game in World Series history…
Don Larsen, who on a glorious fall afternoon in New York in 1956 pitched the only perfect World Series game in history…
The Baltimore Sun (Larsen led the American League in losses with 21 against three wins in 1954 for the Orioles and finished his career with that franchise in 1965):
Don Larsen, the journeyman pitcher who reached the heights of baseball glory when he threw a perfect game in 1956 with the New York Yankees for the only no-hitter in World Series history…
NPR (all, right; it’s the second line):
In the 1956 World Series, the New York Yankees were playing the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers — a rematch of the 1955 series.
Spoiler alert: The Yankees went on to win, and they did it with the help of pitcher Don Larsen, the only player to have pitched a perfect game in the World Series.
You get the idea.
Albert Bell Jr. marked the 50th anniversary of the event in Perfect Game, Imperfect Lives: A Memoir Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Don Larsen’s Perfect Game
Larsen, who had an otherwise unmemorable career, wrote about that memorable game (with Mike Shaw) in Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen
The fall classic classic was also the topic of Lew Paper’s The Perfect Yankee: The Incredible Story of the Greatest Miracle in Baseball History
I wouldn’t be surprised in any of these ended up in this week’s Baseball Best-Seller entry.
is available on Amazon.com,
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