THE WORLD SERIES : New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox : THE DEFENSIVE GEMS : Perfect Game Had Andy Carey in Its Corner

Time, 30 years of it, has done little to blur the images of those who played their parts in Don Larsen’s perfect game during the 1956 World Series.

Larsen, on that autumn day in Yankee Stadium, was surrounded by some of the most famous Yankees this side of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Most people know who caught New York’s 2-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5. It was Yogi Berra, who leaped into Larsen’s arms and onto the front page of every sports section in the nation after Dale Mitchell had struck out, ending the game.

And even casual baseball fans can probably recall the famous center fielder who hit a home run that day--Mickey Mantle--or the second baseman in the background of that picture of Larsen throwing the final pitch--Billy Martin.

But unless you were a baseball fan during the 1950s or are a hard-core Yankee trivia buff, you probably can’t name the third baseman who singled and scored the other Yankee run that day and who saved two potential hits with outstanding defensive plays.

It was Andy Carey.

Carey, who has lived in Newport Beach for 30 years, is not the most identifiable of former Yankees. He never made it to the Hall of Fame. He never became a controversial manager. And he has never appeared in a beer commercial.

A .260 hitter in 11 major league seasons, Carey never attained the legendary status of such former teammates as Mantle, Berra or Whitey Ford.

But that hardly detracts from the contributions he made to Larsen’s perfect game, which he calls the most memorable event of his career.

In the second inning, Jackie Robinson smashed a ball to Carey’s left that appeared headed for the outfield. The third baseman lunged for the ball. Some other former Yankees recall the ball bouncing off Carey’s leg to shortstop Gil McDougald, but Carey says that it ricocheted off his glove. In any event, McDougald grabbed the carom and threw to first baseman Joe Collins in time to get Robinson.

In the eighth, Gil Hodges hit a low liner to the left of Carey, who caught the ball about an inch above the ground. Carey thought maybe the umpire would rule that he trapped it, so he threw to first base to be sure of the out.

Mantle homered off Dodger pitcher Sal Maglie in the fourth inning, then Carey scored in the sixth after leading off with a single, moving to second on Larsen’s sacrifice and coming around on Hank Bauer’s single.

“It was a fantastic thing to be part of,” recalled Carey, 54, who runs an insurance agency in Newport Beach. “I don’t think we realized what a great game it was until many years later.

“It wasn’t a big deal then--it was just a real good game. But the longevity of it and the fact that no one has duplicated it made it what it is today. If someone had done it the next year, it wouldn’t have been as significant.”

Carey’s most vivid memory of the perfect game, though, is not of something that happened at Yankee Stadium that day, but rather, of what happened the night before.

While at Times Square in Manhattan, Carey’s parents, Ken and Nola, had one of those phony newspaper pages printed with two headlines: “Goony Birds Pick Larsen to Win Fifth Game!” and “Larsen Pitches No-Hitter.”

They stuck both to Larsen’s hotel-room door but, thinking that they might jinx the Yankee pitcher, returned half an hour later and took them down.

They ripped up the no-hitter headline but saved the Goony Birds headline, which today is prominently displayed in a large, framed montage of newspaper accounts and photos of the game that hangs in Carey’s Newport Beach office.

“Larsen never saw it or knew about it,” Carey said of the fake newspaper. “I told him about it later, and he thought it was pretty funny.”

As for the game, Carey recalls no one really thinking about the no-hitter until the seventh inning. “We were thinking more about winning a World Series game,” he said.

But as Larsen moved closer to his place in history, his teammates moved farther away. From the seventh inning on, no one, in accordance with baseball superstition, mentioned the perfect game.

Except for Larsen.

“In the seventh inning, Larsen told Mantle, ‘No hits so far,’ ” Carey said. “Mantle just walked away.”

The Yankees went on to win the 1956 World Series in seven games. Six years later, Carey walked--make that hobbled--away from baseball. A chronic back condition forced him to retire in 1962 at 31, but only after he had played in four World Series and helped the Yankees win two championships.

Carey, known as a solid defensive player and clutch hitter, was traded from the Yankees to Kansas City in 1961 and from Kansas City to the Dodgers in 1962. He finished his career with 741 hits and 350 RBIs, or about an RBI for every two hits.

“Ted Williams said I was one of the best clutch hitters he had ever seen,” Carey said. “It seemed like I’d bear down with men on base. But I should have been that way all the time.

“I was never a superstar with the Yankees. I had some good years and some bad years.”

And, like Don Larsen, Carey had one day he’ll never forget.