THE WORLD SERIES : New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox : 30 YEARS AGO : DON LARSEN’S PERFECT GAME : Without Even So Much as Winding Up, Yankee Made History and Rocked the Copa in ’56 Series

Thirty years ago, a pitcher from San Diego achieved perfection on a stage and on a scale probably never reached before or since in sports.

A perfect game. In the World Series. At Yankee Stadium.

In American sports, it’s difficult to imagine topping that. Probably no one has. We’re talking perfection, remember.

In another century or two, maybe, someone else will pitch a perfect game in the World Series. But until it happens again, Don Larsen will continue to define the term, alone.

At first, no one could make sense of it. No one had pitched a perfect game in the major leagues since 1922. It had never happened in 306 World Series games.

Strangest of all, why had fate chosen Don Larsen to stand America on its ear for a day? Why not Whitey Ford? Or Bob Turley? Or Don Newcombe?

Don Larsen didn’t even have a windup, for crying out loud. He was a minor league pitcher the year before, and had never won more than nine games in the majors until 1956, when he won 11.

But, unbelievably, he did it. You can still see the memorable final act today, in black and white: Larsen, seemingly stunned, walking off the mound after the final strike . . . and having to catch Yogi Berra in full flight. Before midnight, Larsen was booked for the “Bob Hope Show” and staring at a $460 tab at the Copacabana.

Great days in sports? This might have been No. 1.

Oct. 8, 1956: The New York Yankees-Brooklyn Dodgers Series was tied at two games each when Larsen faced Sal Maglie in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium, before 64,519.

It was a World Series match-up of Hall of Fame home run hitters, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider, and two great 1950s pitchers, Whitey Ford and Don Newcombe. Mantle had just become the American League’s sixth triple crown winner, hitting .352 with 52 home runs and 130 runs batted in. Snider had hit his 42nd and 43rd home runs on the last day of the regular season. Ford had a 19-6 record, with a 2.47 earned-run average. Newcombe, in his greatest season, was 27-7, with a 3.06 ERA.

The Dodgers, seeking their second straight World Series championship, had won the first two games in Brooklyn, 6-3 and 13-8. The Yankees had tied it at home by winning, 5-3--on a three-run homer by Enos Slaughter--and 6-2.

Enter Donald James Larsen, the pride of San Diego’s Point Loma High School, Class of ’47.

The Yankees seemed up against it in Game 5. Larsen had been wild in Game 2, and Yankee Manager Casey Stengel had yanked him after two innings, Larsen having walked four batters.

And really, how confident could you feel about a pitcher who didn’t have a windup? Larsen believed that a couple of rival American League coaches, after closely studying his windup, had learned to “read” his pitches. He had abandoned the windup entirely in midseason.

Seemingly, the only one with some confidence in Larsen was Stengel. He said this about the 27-year-old right-hander after Game 2: “This Larsen, now he has pitched somethin’ like three four-hit games in September, and me, I ain’t the type which would hide this sort of pitcher.”

Then, Game 5. A ballgame for the ages.

--Larsen threw 97 pitches in retiring 27 consecutive batters.

--Seventy-one of his 97 pitches were strikes.

--He struck out seven.

--There were seven ground-outs, nine fly balls to the outfield, three infield pop flies and one infield line drive.

--Larsen reached a ball-three count on only one hitter, Pee Wee Reese in the first inning, then struck him out.

Larsen, now 57, works for a paper products firm near San Jose. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

Jerry Coleman, a broadcaster for the San Diego Padres, was a Yankee infielder who sat on the Yankee bench that day. He remembers two big breaks that saved the day for Larsen.

“He had immense luck on two plays,” Coleman said.

“First, in the second inning, Jackie Robinson hit a ball so hard it hit (third baseman) Andy Carey in the leg. He couldn’t even get a glove on it. (Carey maintains that the ball bounced off his glove, and he has a series of photos hanging in his office indicating as much.) The ball caromed off Carey and dribbled to Gil McDougald at short, who threw Robinson out--an incredible play, considering the circumstances later.

“In the fifth, Gil Hodges hit a ball about 450 feet to left-center. Everyone knows what great speed Mickey Mantle had, right? Well, on that play he really had to run. Anytime Mickey had to go up the alley for a ball, it was an awesome sight. He made a great play. He was the only outfielder in baseball then who could have made a play on that ball.”

Mantle also homered that day, all the margin the Yankees needed in a 2-0 win.

The Times’ Frank Finch, who covered the game, wrote of some lesser breaks: Carey spearing a line drive by Hodges off his shoe tops, and a ball hit by Sandy Amoros in the fifth that sailed into the right-field seats, foul by a foot.

When it came down to the ninth inning, Yankee Stadium was rocking. And the Yankee bench was up for grabs.

“Everybody in the dugout was up, shouting to the fielders. Everyone had an opinion on how the outfield and infield should be playing the first hitter, Carl Furillo,” Coleman recalled.

“Stengel shut everyone up by saying: ‘Goddam it, I’m the manager of this ball club! Sit down! I’ll tell ‘em where to play!’ ”

Furillo fouled off four straight pitches before hitting a routine fly ball to right fielder Hank Bauer.

Next: Roy Campanella. On the first pitch, he pulled a foul ball off the facade of the second deck in left field. On the second pitch, he tapped out weakly to the second baseman, Billy Martin.

One to go. The din was deafening, and many couldn’t hear the public address announcer say that Dale Mitchell would pinch hit for Sal Maglie. Mitchell, a career .314 hitter, was a left-handed, line-drive hitter.

The umpire was Babe Pinelli, 61, working behind the plate for the last time in a 22-year National League career. He retired after the Series.

Ball one, outside.

Strike one, called.

Strike two, swinging.

Larsen turned his back to Mitchell, took off his cap and wiped sweat from his brow. He stared briefly at the outfield, then faced Mitchell again.

Foul ball, still one ball, two strikes.

Larsen came right back at Mitchell. He threw a fastball on the outside corner that Mitchell wanted to swing at but took instead. He turned and saw Pinelli raising his right arm and Berra beginning his long-jump approach to Larsen.

Afterward, some said that the final strike had been a touch outside, that Pinelli had been too eager to bow out with a perfect game.

“It was a fastball; it was right over the middle--an easy call,” he said after the game. “Larsen’s change of pace, particularly to the right-handed hitters, was great. Seven or eight of them were swinging at it like at a Ping-Pong ball.”

Films of the last pitch suggest it was on the outside corner, or possibly even off the corner.

Berra recently recalled the last pitch as a strike, on the corner.

“Was it a strike? Sure it was, by that much,” he said, holding his thumb and forefinger half an inch apart.

Berra also recalled Larsen as an underrated pitcher at that point in his career.

“Don had pretty good stuff, but he started out with some bad teams (the St. Louis Browns for one) . . . he had a good fastball and slider. The real freaky play in that game was the ball Jackie Robinson hit, a line drive that hit Carey in the leg and bounced to McDougald (the same play Coleman had referred to.)”

Overnight, Larsen’s name was as familiar as Mantle’s. Or President Eisenhower’s. He was mobbed in airports and hotel lobbies. For about a year, he commanded $1,000 for a personal appearance.

But for Larsen, it didn’t last. The perfect game occurred at roughly the one-third mark of his career. When it was all over, without the perfect game, 1956 was still his best year. He had an 11-5 record and a 3.22 ERA that season.

He was 10-4, 9-6 and 6-7 the next three seasons, before the Yankees traded him to Kansas City. He later pitched for San Francisco, Houston and the Chicago Cubs, before retiring in 1967.

Now, it can be told.

Where was Don Larsen the night before he pitched his perfect game?

Larsen was a man of the boulevard, a creature who craved neon, the happy chatter of a lively tavern and nighttime fellowship.

The question was put to Coleman: “Is it true that Larsen was falling-down drunk in some bar the night before the perfect game?”

Coleman said: “You’d better call Art Richman of the Mets. He was his pal in those days; you’d better get it from him.”

Richman said: “No, that’s a bunch of (bleep). I took Don home at 11:45 the night before. It was the next night we had quite a session at the Copacabana.

“The night before the game, we went to Bill Taylor’s joint--he had a little bar and grill on West 57th Street, across the street from the Henry Hudson Hotel, where a lot of Giants and Yankees lived in those days.

“Don and I just wanted to have a few toddies and maybe a hamburger. Rip Coleman, a Yankee relief pitcher and Larsen’s roomie on the road, joined us. “Practically every bar owner in New York to this day will tell you Larsen was in his place the night before, falling-down drunk. Hey, I took him home at 11:45. Don wanted to stay out longer, but I told him: ‘Look, you screwed up the second game, and if you screw up tomorrow, you’re gone next season; so you’re going home, now.

“Don said, ‘Aw, relax--I’m going to pitch a no-hitter tomorrow.’

“I got a cab for us and took him to the Concourse Plaza Hotel in the Bronx, where he lived. A lot of Yankees lived there. My house was nearby.

“As he got out of the cab, he gave me some pocket money and said: ‘Give this to your mama. Tell her to give it to the synagogue.’ My mom used to do his laundry and feed him once in a while. It was a nice thing for him to do, and I’ve always remembered it.

“The next night, we hit all the joints. We wound up at the Copacabana, where Joe E. Lewis was appearing. I called to reserve a table, and they said no way--they were full. Then I said: ‘How about if I tell you I’m bringing Don Larsen?’

“They said: ‘You got Don Larsen? You bring Don Larsen, we’ll set up a special table, right up front.’

“Well, they did. And Lewis did his whole routine right from our table. It was a great night--everybody’s buying everybody drinks, and it went on a long time. But everything wound up on our tab. It was $460. Remember, this is 1956. A very big tab.

“I don’t think Don and I had $40 between us. Finally, Lewis picked up the tab. Those lousy Copacabana bastards--I’m still burned up about that night. Every paper in New York had pictures the next day of Don in their place, and they wouldn’t even pick up the tab.

“Anyhow, I went home. Don stayed out. Don was supposed to be on the “Today Show” the next morning and he had to be there at 6 a.m. At 5:30 a.m., his agent calls me at home screaming and yelling, demanding to know where Don is. I tell him I have no idea. We cuss each other out for a while, then I go look for Don.

“I found him in a . . . well, let’s just say I found him. Can’t we leave it at that?”

Times staff writer Gordon Edes contributed to this story.

PERFECT ‘LARSENY’

Brooklyn AB R H O A Gilliam 2b 3 0 0 2 0 Reese ss 3 0 0 4 2 Snider cf 3 0 0 1 0 Robinson 3b 3 0 0 2 4 Hoges 1b 3 0 0 5 1 Amoros lf 3 0 0 3 0 Furillo rf 3 0 0 0 0 Campanella c 3 0 0 7 2 Maglie p 2 0 0 0 1 Mitchell 1 0 0 0 0 Total 27 0 0 24 10

New York (A) AB R H O A Bauer rf 4 0 1 4 0 Collins, 1b 4 0 1 7 0 Mantle,cf 3 1 1 4 0 Berra c 3 0 0 7 0 Slaughter lf 2 0 0 1 0 Martin 2b 3 0 1 3 4 McDougald ss 2 0 0 0 2 Carey 3b 3 1 1 1 1 Larsen p 2 0 0 0 1 Total 26 2 5 27 8

Mitchell struck out for Maglie in 9th

Brooklyn (N) 000 000 000--0 New York (A) 000 101 00x--2 RBI--Mantle, Bauer. HR--Mantle. S--Larsen. DP--Reese to Hodges; Hodges to Campanella to Robinson to Campanella to Robinson. LOB--Brookl;yn 0, New York 3. BB--Maglie 2. SO--Maglie 5, Larsen 7. HO--Larsen 0-9, Maglie 5-8. R&ER--Maglie; 2-2. Winner--Larsen. Loser--Maglie. Umpires--Pinelli (N), plate; Soar (A), first base; Boggess (N), second base; Napp (A), third base; Gorman (N), Runge (A), foul lines--Time--2h, 6m. Attendance--64,519.