Flawed Men, Perfect Games

As a lifeguard in Ocean Beach, Bennie Edens remembers Don Larsen as a great high school basketball star who also played baseball. As a coach and administrator, Edens remembers David Wells as a great high school baseball star who also played basketball.

Edens has been a coach and administrator at Point Loma High for just short of forever. He has almost seen it all when it comes to Pointer athletics.

“I saw Don Larsen,” he said, “but I never knew him. He graduated two years before I got here.” Edens laughed. He knew David Wells quite well. “He was the sort of kid coaches tend to know about,” Edens said. “He was what I’ll call a sky-larking rebel.”

It would seem that Don Larsen and David Wells have quite a bit in common. Both graduated from Point Loma, both went into professional baseball and, indeed, both had (or have) reputations as sky-larking rebels.

One more little commonality. . . . Larsen and Wells are among 15 major league pitchers who have thrown perfect games, Wells joining the elite society Sunday.

Larsen, of course, pitched the most famous perfect game ever, the victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

As if they need any more in common, both pitched their perfect games for the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. No one but these two Point Loma guys has ever pitched a perfect game either for the Yankees or in Yankee Stadium. Thus what they have in common is also unique.

What they have done is also unique in that no one high school has produced two major league pitchers who have thrown a perfect game.

“That’s something, isn’t it?” Edens marveled. A coincidence? Of course. So what?

And Edens is a man who may rightfully, and reasonably, think he has seen it all. He began coaching at Point Loma High in 1949 and only a few months ago completed his 48th year as football coach. Interestingly, in spite of all those years at Point Loma, Edens said he has never “formally” met Larsen. This would suggest that Larsen has not remained particularly close to his alma mater. “We honored him in our Hall of Fame,” Edens said, “but he couldn’t make it.”

Wells, in contrast, donated $50,000 to his alma mater in 1992. In all fairness, that was an extraordinary annual salary in Larsen’s day.

“He’s always been one to think about helping his school out,” Edens said of Wells. “He didn’t play football as a sophomore or junior, but we got some kids hurt his senior year and he came to me and offered to come out. I thanked him and told him to stay with baseball.”

Consequently, Wells never played for Edens, but they knew of each other even before the youngster arrived at Point Loma. Edens was already a legendary football coach, in these parts at least, and Wells was one of those kids coaches hear about before they arrive.

“He lived among a rougher element in Ocean Beach,” Edens said. “He once told me he grew up playing catch with Hell’s Angels. I don’t think you could say David was particularly motivated toward his studies. He didn’t worry too much about getting to class on time and you never put it past him to cut class and go to the beach.”

Wells had the size to play football, at least in high school, at 6 feet 2 and 190 pounds, but football ranked alongside the classroom in his priorities.

“Baseball,” Edens said, “was where he belonged. That was his love.”

Baseball eventually caused Wells to end up with the New York Yankees. Before he even reported to the Yankees, Wells broke his hand in a scrap outside a bar. Larsen also was known to patronize pubs, though there is no record of him having broken a hand. In the aftermath of Larsen’s effort, it was written: “The imperfect man pitched a perfect game.”

This was deja vu all over again, for the Yankees, Yankee Stadium and Point Loma High School.