This time, the Dodgers had won Games 1 and 2 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. This included the Game 2 start of the Yankees' Don Larsen, who didn't get out of the 2nd inning, but also didn't end up as the losing pitcher, since the Yankees came back to retake the lead, and then lost it again. The Yankees took Games 3 and 4 at Yankee Stadium.
For Game 5, Yankee manager Casey Stengel took a chance on Larsen, who'd had only 3 days rest (in those days, when it was an All-New York "Subway Series," there were no travel days), but had pitched less than 2 full innings. He also had a "no-windup delivery," which was easier on his arm.
A 27-year-old righthanded pitcher born in Michigan City, Indiana, who grew up in San Diego, Donald James Larsen was unremarkable for most of his career. Indeed, like the only man ever to pitch back-to-back no-hitters, Johnny Vander Meer of the 1938 Cincinnati Reds, he had a losing won-lost record for his career: 81-91. Much of that was due to his 3-21 performance for the 1954 Baltimore Orioles, although he did go 11-5 for the Yankees in the 1956 regular season.
Starting for the Dodgers was Sal Maglie, the former ace of the New York Giants and one of the most hated opponents in Brooklyn history, but who had come to the Dodgers in midseason and pitched a no-hitter of his own -- something he hadn't done for the Giants. It is still the last no-hitter pitched by a player for a National League team in New York -- unless you believe that Carlos Beltran’s line drive really was foul, thus giving Johan Santana a no-hitter for the Mets in 2012.
Maglie was a proven veteran, Larsen a journeyman. And Game 6 would be at Ebbets Field. If necessary, so would Game 7.
It wasn't looking good for the Bronx Bombers.
*
Here's what the world was like on October 8, 1956:
The Dodgers and Giants were still in New York, but both were dropping hints about moving. For a long time, the Phillies were "the other team" in Philadelphia, behind the Athletics. At this point, the A's were wrapping up their 2nd season in Kansas City. In other words, there was a team in Kansas City, but it wasn't the Royals.
Prior to that, there were no major league teams west of St. Louis. There were still none south of St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. There was a baseball team in Washington, but it was in the American League and it wasn't the Nationals, it was the Senators. There was a team in Milwaukee, and it was in the National League, but it wasn't the Brewers, it was the Braves.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Toronto, Atlanta, Miami and Tampa were all still minor-league cities. So was Montreal, for whom big-league ball has since come and gone.
There were still 3 MLB teams that did not have a black player: The Phillies, the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox. Every Major League Baseball park had lights, except Wrigley Field in Chicago. But none of them had artificial turf, or a roof, retractable or otherwise.
And while the Cubs were already advertising their home ground as "Beautiful Wrigley Field," hardly anybody thought of Fenway Park as wonderful -- mainly because every team, except for Baltimore and Milwaukee, was playing in a stadium built before World War II. Having a ballpark that opened in 1912 was no big deal at that time: The Giants, Phillies, Senators, Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were all then playing in ballparks built that year or earlier. Of the 16 ballparks in use in 1956, only Wrigley and Fenway are still in use.
Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Nap Lajoie were still alive. Connie Mack had died a few months earlier. Cy Young and Honus Wagner had died the previous year. The defining baseball stars of my childhood? Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Stargell and Pete Rose were in high school. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton were in junior high. Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan, Carlton Fisk and Mike Schmidt were in grade school. George Brett was 3 years old.
There was an NFL team in Baltimore, but it wasn't the Ravens. It was the Colts, and they were about to start the season the following Sunday. Johnny Unitas, who would become known as their quarterback, and perhaps the greatest quarterback ever, had just played his 1st NFL game 2 days earlier, on Saturday, October 6. It didn't go so well: He threw 2 passes, 1 incomplete, 1 intercepted, and the Detroit Lions beat the Colts, 31-14. Things would get better for him.
The NFL had already expanded to the West Coast, but not yet to the South, including Texas. Iconic teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots did not yet exist. There were 2 teams in Chicago -- the Cardinals not yet having moved to St. Louis, let alone Arizona -- and one in New York, the Giants.
The defending champions of the NFL were the Cleveland Browns. Yes, that was a long time ago. In the NBA, it was the Philadelphia Warriors, who moved to San Francisco in 1962. In the NHL, it was the Montreal Canadiens. The Boston Celtics had yet to win their 1st NBA title -- but then, Bill Russell had yet to make their debut for them. Wilt Chamberlain was a sophomore at the University of Kansas. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in grade school. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan weren't born yet.
Officially, the Heavyweight Championship of the World was vacant, as Rocky Marciano had retired. Two months later, Floyd Patterson would beat the last man Marciano had beaten, Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, in the fight to determine the new champ. Muhammad Ali was 14 -- and he was still Cassius Clay.
The Olympic Games had never yet been broadcast on American television -- nor would the games about to be held in Melbourne, Australia, held in November so it would be Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The Olympics have since been held 5 times in America; 3 times each in Canada and Japan; twice each in Australia, Italy, Austria, France and Russia; and once each in Mexico, Germany, Bosnia, Spain, Norway, Korea, Greece, China, Britain and Brazil.
The 1st European Cup Final had recently been held, with Real Madrid of Spain beating Stade de Reims of France, 4-3. The World Cup has since been held twice each in Mexico and Germany, and once each in America, England, Sweden, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa and Brazil.
The manager of today's Dodgers, Dave Roberts, wasn't born yet. Nor was any manager of a current New York Tri-State Area major league sports team except Terry Collins of the Mets, who was 7 years old.
Prior to that, there were no major league teams west of St. Louis. There were still none south of St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. There was a baseball team in Washington, but it was in the American League and it wasn't the Nationals, it was the Senators. There was a team in Milwaukee, and it was in the National League, but it wasn't the Brewers, it was the Braves.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Toronto, Atlanta, Miami and Tampa were all still minor-league cities. So was Montreal, for whom big-league ball has since come and gone.
There were still 3 MLB teams that did not have a black player: The Phillies, the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox. Every Major League Baseball park had lights, except Wrigley Field in Chicago. But none of them had artificial turf, or a roof, retractable or otherwise.
And while the Cubs were already advertising their home ground as "Beautiful Wrigley Field," hardly anybody thought of Fenway Park as wonderful -- mainly because every team, except for Baltimore and Milwaukee, was playing in a stadium built before World War II. Having a ballpark that opened in 1912 was no big deal at that time: The Giants, Phillies, Senators, Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were all then playing in ballparks built that year or earlier. Of the 16 ballparks in use in 1956, only Wrigley and Fenway are still in use.
Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Nap Lajoie were still alive. Connie Mack had died a few months earlier. Cy Young and Honus Wagner had died the previous year. The defining baseball stars of my childhood? Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Stargell and Pete Rose were in high school. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton were in junior high. Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan, Carlton Fisk and Mike Schmidt were in grade school. George Brett was 3 years old.
There was an NFL team in Baltimore, but it wasn't the Ravens. It was the Colts, and they were about to start the season the following Sunday. Johnny Unitas, who would become known as their quarterback, and perhaps the greatest quarterback ever, had just played his 1st NFL game 2 days earlier, on Saturday, October 6. It didn't go so well: He threw 2 passes, 1 incomplete, 1 intercepted, and the Detroit Lions beat the Colts, 31-14. Things would get better for him.
The NFL had already expanded to the West Coast, but not yet to the South, including Texas. Iconic teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots did not yet exist. There were 2 teams in Chicago -- the Cardinals not yet having moved to St. Louis, let alone Arizona -- and one in New York, the Giants.
The defending champions of the NFL were the Cleveland Browns. Yes, that was a long time ago. In the NBA, it was the Philadelphia Warriors, who moved to San Francisco in 1962. In the NHL, it was the Montreal Canadiens. The Boston Celtics had yet to win their 1st NBA title -- but then, Bill Russell had yet to make their debut for them. Wilt Chamberlain was a sophomore at the University of Kansas. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in grade school. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan weren't born yet.
Officially, the Heavyweight Championship of the World was vacant, as Rocky Marciano had retired. Two months later, Floyd Patterson would beat the last man Marciano had beaten, Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, in the fight to determine the new champ. Muhammad Ali was 14 -- and he was still Cassius Clay.
The Olympic Games had never yet been broadcast on American television -- nor would the games about to be held in Melbourne, Australia, held in November so it would be Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The Olympics have since been held 5 times in America; 3 times each in Canada and Japan; twice each in Australia, Italy, Austria, France and Russia; and once each in Mexico, Germany, Bosnia, Spain, Norway, Korea, Greece, China, Britain and Brazil.
The 1st European Cup Final had recently been held, with Real Madrid of Spain beating Stade de Reims of France, 4-3. The World Cup has since been held twice each in Mexico and Germany, and once each in America, England, Sweden, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa and Brazil.
The manager of today's Dodgers, Dave Roberts, wasn't born yet. Nor was any manager of a current New York Tri-State Area major league sports team except Terry Collins of the Mets, who was 7 years old.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, for the 2nd time, was about to be elected President. As with the 1st time, it was in a landslide over Adlai Stevenson. Richard Nixon was Ike's Vice President. Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and the widows of Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt were still alive.
John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were in the U.S. Senate, Gerald Ford in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jimmy Carter was running a peanut farm, George H.W. Bush an oil company, and Ronald Reagan was about to make the one and only film in which his co-star was his wife, then still billed as Nancy Davis: Hellcats of the Navy. Neither Carter, nor Reagan, nor Bush had ever yet run for office. Bush's son was 10. So was Bill Clinton. So was Donald Trump. Hillary Rodham was 9. Barack Obama wasn't born yet.
The Governor of the State of New York was Averell Harriman. The Governor of New Jersey was Robert Meyner. The Mayor of the City of New York was Robert F. Wagner Jr. Michael Bloomberg was in high school, while Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie hadn't been born yet. The last Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court then on it to still be on it was William J. Brennan, in 1990.
There were still surviving veterans of the Indian Wars. Just 67 days earlier, Albert Woolson, the last living veteran of the American Civil War, a 106-year-old former drummer boy from Minnesota, passed away.
There were 48 States, and 22 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. There had not been a Civil Rights Act since 1875. There was no Medicare, Medicaid, Environmental Protection Agency or legalized abortion. There hadn't yet been sit-ins, Freedom Rides or the Stonewall Riot. Children in public schools could still be forced to say a Christian, most likely Protestant, prayer.
Under the law of the time, the man next in line to be Mayor of New York was the President of the City Council. His name was Abe Stark, and he rose to prominence by having a sign advertising his clothing store at the base of the Ebbets Field scoreboard: "HIT SIGN WIN SUIT." Thanks to the fielding of the aforementioned Carl Furillo, and before that of Dixie Walker, Stark only had to award one free suit to an opposing player: Mel Ott of the Giants. Someone suggested that, due to Furillo having saved Stark from having to give out free suits, he should give Furillo one. He did.
The Pope was Pius XII. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, then Father Joseph Ratzinger, was studying for his habilitation, allowing him to become a professor. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose not to award a Peace Prize for 1955, so the current holder was the 1954 honoree, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Louis St. Laurent, and of Britain, Anthony Eden. The monarch was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- but she was just 30 years old. There have since been 11 Presidents of the United States, 11 Prime Ministers of Britain and 6 Popes.
The titleholders in England's Football League were Manchester United, led by manager Matt Busby and his "Busby Babes." The FA Cup had been won by their crosstown rivals, Manchester City, thanks to their German-born goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, who had literally broken his neck to win them the Cup. (A doctor told him another fraction of an inch, and he would have been a quadriplegic.)
Major novels of 1956 included Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, the political thriller The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor, Ian Fleming's James Bond story Diamonds Are Forever (there were, as yet, no films based on the series), Philip K. Dick's science-fiction story The Minority Report, and one of the earliest mainstream novels to treat a homosexual relationship as something other than a plot point to explain something twisted, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.
Amazingly -- this was 13 years before the Stonewall Riot -- neither the novel nor Baldwin's own "coming out of the closet" hurt his career. Less well-received, but much more groundbreaking, was Howl and Other Poems by the out, and far-out, Allen Ginsberg.
This was also the year of the last books published in the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkein (The Return of the King), and in the Narnia series by his good friend C.S. Lewis (The Last Battle). No one had yet heard of Dean Moriarty, Yuri Zhivago, Holly Golightly, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, Atticus Finch, John Yossarian, Jean Brodie, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Marvel Comics version of Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, The Doctor, Daredevil, Alex Portnoy, John Rambo, Spenser: For Hire, George Smiley, The Punisher, Rocky Balboa, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Celie Harris, Kinsey Millhone, Jack Ryan, Forrest Gump, John McClane, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Bella Swan, Lisbeth Salander or Katniss Everdeen.
Gene Roddenberry had begun to sell scripts for television, and had resigned from the Los Angeles Police Department to concentrate on this. Stan Lee was writing comic books, but they were mostly romance, Westerns, science fiction, medieval adventure and horror. He had not yet begun to write superhero stories, and was thinking of quitting the business. George Lucas was 12. Steven Spielberg was 9. George R.R. Martin had just turned 8. J.K. Rowling wasn't born yet.
Two major sports-themed books appeared that year: Mark Harris' baseball novel Bang the Drum Slowly and A.J. Liebling's collection of boxing writing, which gave a nickname to the sport: The Sweet Science. Notable plays of the year included Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, and Eugene O'Neill's posthumously published Long Day's Journey into Night.
It was a big year for movies. Film versions were made of Jules Verne's novel Around the World In 80 Days, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and the Broadway musical Carousel. Alfred Hitchcock, frame-for-frame but in color and with an American cast, remade his 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much -- not to be confused with the film version of Sloan Wilson's novel The Man In the Gray Flannel Suit, which also premiered this year. Cecil B. DeMille also remade one of his films in color, The Ten Commandments, and the only way it could have been more over-the-top would have been if the actors were allowed to intentionally act gay.
Anastasia marked Ingrid Bergman's return to the mainstream after the scandal of her affair with director Roberto Rossellini. American audiences were introduced to French actress Brigitte Bardot and her then-husband, director Roger Vadim, in And God Created Woman. And to Japanese legends Akiro Kurosawa, with his Seven Samurai -- upon which The Magnificent Seven would be based -- and Gojira, or Godzilla as he's known here.
Yul Brynner played Pharoah Rameses II in The Ten Commandments. That made little sense, since he was not Middle Eastern. But it was an iconic performance, as was Charlton Heston's as Moses. Brynner playing King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I, in the film version that year, after having already played the role on Broadway? It made some sense, as he was East Asian: Half-Siberian, half-Mongol. John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror? It made no sense, as he was all-Irish. The Conqueror turned out to be the last Wayne film that had never been shown on television. Much better was another Wayne film, The Searchers.
There was a film titled Naked Gun, but it didn't star Leslie Nielsen. Nielsen did star in Forbidden Planet, a science-fiction version of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Also that year, in science fiction, was the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. George Reeves was playing Superman on TV, but there hadn't been a live-action Batman since Robert Lowery in a 1949 serial.
We said hello to Elvis Presley, who burst onto the music scene like no solo performer has before, nor has since, and who made his film debut in Love Me Tender. And we said goodbye to Grace Kelly, whose last film before giving up her career to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco was High Society; and to James Dean, who was killed in a car crash almost exactly a year before the Maglie no-hitter, and whose last film, Giant, was released.
The most notable body parts in film that year were not Elvis' hips, but Kirk Douglas' ear, as Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life; and Jayne Mansfield's breasts, inspiring a different kind of lust in the 1st good film with rock and roll as the subject, The Girl Can't Help It.
The Number 1 record in America was Elvis' double-sided hit: "Don't Be Cruel," written by Otis Blackwell; and "Hound Dog," written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. Blackwell and the Lieber-Stoller team each wrote a lot of great songs in the 1950s, including others for Elvis. But rock and roll was just starting out, and was hardly dominant: Frank Sinatra and his contemporaries still set the pace.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney hadn't met yet. Bob Dylan was still high school student Robert Zimmerman. David Bowie and Elton John were 9 years old, and named David Jones and Reginald Dwight, respectively; while Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen were 7. Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince weren't born yet.
TV shows debuting that year included the soap operas As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the game shows Queen for a Day and the original version of The Price Is Right, the anthology series Playhouse 90, and the variety program The Ford Show -- officially named for its automotive sponsor, not its host, country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford. Shows ending that year included The Honeymooners. And the DuMont network went out of business.
In the early Autumn of 1956, tensions were rising in Hungary and Egypt. Australia began TV broadcasting. Anastasio Somoza, President of Nicaragua, was assassinated; 2 of his sons would also be President, their regimes ending no better. Reynold Johnson and his team of IBM scientists, who would later invent the videocassette tape, invented the hard disk drive.
In the days surrounding Maglie's no-hitter, track and golf legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and FIFA President and World Cup founder Jules Rimet, and Albert Von Tilzer, who wrote the melody for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," died. Soccer legend Paolo Rossi, and middle-distance runner Sebastian Coe, and tennis icon Martina Navratilova were born. On the very day of the perfect game, actress Stephanie Zimbalist was born.
John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were in the U.S. Senate, Gerald Ford in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jimmy Carter was running a peanut farm, George H.W. Bush an oil company, and Ronald Reagan was about to make the one and only film in which his co-star was his wife, then still billed as Nancy Davis: Hellcats of the Navy. Neither Carter, nor Reagan, nor Bush had ever yet run for office. Bush's son was 10. So was Bill Clinton. So was Donald Trump. Hillary Rodham was 9. Barack Obama wasn't born yet.
The Governor of the State of New York was Averell Harriman. The Governor of New Jersey was Robert Meyner. The Mayor of the City of New York was Robert F. Wagner Jr. Michael Bloomberg was in high school, while Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie hadn't been born yet. The last Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court then on it to still be on it was William J. Brennan, in 1990.
There were still surviving veterans of the Indian Wars. Just 67 days earlier, Albert Woolson, the last living veteran of the American Civil War, a 106-year-old former drummer boy from Minnesota, passed away.
There were 48 States, and 22 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. There had not been a Civil Rights Act since 1875. There was no Medicare, Medicaid, Environmental Protection Agency or legalized abortion. There hadn't yet been sit-ins, Freedom Rides or the Stonewall Riot. Children in public schools could still be forced to say a Christian, most likely Protestant, prayer.
Under the law of the time, the man next in line to be Mayor of New York was the President of the City Council. His name was Abe Stark, and he rose to prominence by having a sign advertising his clothing store at the base of the Ebbets Field scoreboard: "HIT SIGN WIN SUIT." Thanks to the fielding of the aforementioned Carl Furillo, and before that of Dixie Walker, Stark only had to award one free suit to an opposing player: Mel Ott of the Giants. Someone suggested that, due to Furillo having saved Stark from having to give out free suits, he should give Furillo one. He did.
The Pope was Pius XII. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, then Father Joseph Ratzinger, was studying for his habilitation, allowing him to become a professor. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose not to award a Peace Prize for 1955, so the current holder was the 1954 honoree, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Louis St. Laurent, and of Britain, Anthony Eden. The monarch was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- but she was just 30 years old. There have since been 11 Presidents of the United States, 11 Prime Ministers of Britain and 6 Popes.
The titleholders in England's Football League were Manchester United, led by manager Matt Busby and his "Busby Babes." The FA Cup had been won by their crosstown rivals, Manchester City, thanks to their German-born goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, who had literally broken his neck to win them the Cup. (A doctor told him another fraction of an inch, and he would have been a quadriplegic.)
Major novels of 1956 included Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, the political thriller The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor, Ian Fleming's James Bond story Diamonds Are Forever (there were, as yet, no films based on the series), Philip K. Dick's science-fiction story The Minority Report, and one of the earliest mainstream novels to treat a homosexual relationship as something other than a plot point to explain something twisted, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.
Amazingly -- this was 13 years before the Stonewall Riot -- neither the novel nor Baldwin's own "coming out of the closet" hurt his career. Less well-received, but much more groundbreaking, was Howl and Other Poems by the out, and far-out, Allen Ginsberg.
This was also the year of the last books published in the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkein (The Return of the King), and in the Narnia series by his good friend C.S. Lewis (The Last Battle). No one had yet heard of Dean Moriarty, Yuri Zhivago, Holly Golightly, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, Atticus Finch, John Yossarian, Jean Brodie, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Marvel Comics version of Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, The Doctor, Daredevil, Alex Portnoy, John Rambo, Spenser: For Hire, George Smiley, The Punisher, Rocky Balboa, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Celie Harris, Kinsey Millhone, Jack Ryan, Forrest Gump, John McClane, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Bella Swan, Lisbeth Salander or Katniss Everdeen.
Gene Roddenberry had begun to sell scripts for television, and had resigned from the Los Angeles Police Department to concentrate on this. Stan Lee was writing comic books, but they were mostly romance, Westerns, science fiction, medieval adventure and horror. He had not yet begun to write superhero stories, and was thinking of quitting the business. George Lucas was 12. Steven Spielberg was 9. George R.R. Martin had just turned 8. J.K. Rowling wasn't born yet.
Two major sports-themed books appeared that year: Mark Harris' baseball novel Bang the Drum Slowly and A.J. Liebling's collection of boxing writing, which gave a nickname to the sport: The Sweet Science. Notable plays of the year included Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, and Eugene O'Neill's posthumously published Long Day's Journey into Night.
It was a big year for movies. Film versions were made of Jules Verne's novel Around the World In 80 Days, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and the Broadway musical Carousel. Alfred Hitchcock, frame-for-frame but in color and with an American cast, remade his 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much -- not to be confused with the film version of Sloan Wilson's novel The Man In the Gray Flannel Suit, which also premiered this year. Cecil B. DeMille also remade one of his films in color, The Ten Commandments, and the only way it could have been more over-the-top would have been if the actors were allowed to intentionally act gay.
Anastasia marked Ingrid Bergman's return to the mainstream after the scandal of her affair with director Roberto Rossellini. American audiences were introduced to French actress Brigitte Bardot and her then-husband, director Roger Vadim, in And God Created Woman. And to Japanese legends Akiro Kurosawa, with his Seven Samurai -- upon which The Magnificent Seven would be based -- and Gojira, or Godzilla as he's known here.
Yul Brynner played Pharoah Rameses II in The Ten Commandments. That made little sense, since he was not Middle Eastern. But it was an iconic performance, as was Charlton Heston's as Moses. Brynner playing King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I, in the film version that year, after having already played the role on Broadway? It made some sense, as he was East Asian: Half-Siberian, half-Mongol. John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror? It made no sense, as he was all-Irish. The Conqueror turned out to be the last Wayne film that had never been shown on television. Much better was another Wayne film, The Searchers.
There was a film titled Naked Gun, but it didn't star Leslie Nielsen. Nielsen did star in Forbidden Planet, a science-fiction version of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Also that year, in science fiction, was the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. George Reeves was playing Superman on TV, but there hadn't been a live-action Batman since Robert Lowery in a 1949 serial.
We said hello to Elvis Presley, who burst onto the music scene like no solo performer has before, nor has since, and who made his film debut in Love Me Tender. And we said goodbye to Grace Kelly, whose last film before giving up her career to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco was High Society; and to James Dean, who was killed in a car crash almost exactly a year before the Maglie no-hitter, and whose last film, Giant, was released.
The most notable body parts in film that year were not Elvis' hips, but Kirk Douglas' ear, as Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life; and Jayne Mansfield's breasts, inspiring a different kind of lust in the 1st good film with rock and roll as the subject, The Girl Can't Help It.
The Number 1 record in America was Elvis' double-sided hit: "Don't Be Cruel," written by Otis Blackwell; and "Hound Dog," written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. Blackwell and the Lieber-Stoller team each wrote a lot of great songs in the 1950s, including others for Elvis. But rock and roll was just starting out, and was hardly dominant: Frank Sinatra and his contemporaries still set the pace.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney hadn't met yet. Bob Dylan was still high school student Robert Zimmerman. David Bowie and Elton John were 9 years old, and named David Jones and Reginald Dwight, respectively; while Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen were 7. Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince weren't born yet.
TV shows debuting that year included the soap operas As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the game shows Queen for a Day and the original version of The Price Is Right, the anthology series Playhouse 90, and the variety program The Ford Show -- officially named for its automotive sponsor, not its host, country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford. Shows ending that year included The Honeymooners. And the DuMont network went out of business.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 bought then, $8.82 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp was 3 cents, and a New York subway ride was 15 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 23 cents, a cup of coffee 31 cents, a McDonald's meal (cheeseburger, fries, shake) 49 cents, a movie ticket 52 cents, a new car $2,050, and a new house $22,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 500 for the 1st time.
The tallest building in the world was the Empire State Building. Telephones for use in cars had been around since 1946, but the idea of having a phone you could walk around with was ridiculous. So was space travel: Insects, dogs and apes had been launched into space, but no object had yet been put into orbit. Space travel was for the movies, not something anybody was thinking would happen in real life anytime soon -- or so we thought.
Color television was new, and hardly anybody had a TV set that could show it. NBC debuted its Peacock logo, to advertise its color programming. The polio vaccine was still new. So were kidney transplants, and transplants of hearts, lungs and livers would have to wait a few years. There were artificial kidneys, but no artificial hearts. There was no birth-control pill, and no Viagra.
Computers could take up an entire floor of a building. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were all born the previous year. Diners Club had introduced the credit card, but American Express had not yet popularized it. There were no automatic teller machines.
Telephone numbers were still based on "exchanges," based on the letters on a rotary dial. So a number that, today, would be (718) 293-6000 (this is the number for the Yankees' ticket office, so I’m not hurting anyone's privacy), would have been CYpress 3-6000. There were no ZIP Codes, either. They ended up being based on the old system: The old New York Daily News Building, at 220 East 42nd Street, was "New York 17, NY"; it became "New York, NY 10017."
Telephone numbers were still based on "exchanges," based on the letters on a rotary dial. So a number that, today, would be (718) 293-6000 (this is the number for the Yankees' ticket office, so I’m not hurting anyone's privacy), would have been CYpress 3-6000. There were no ZIP Codes, either. They ended up being based on the old system: The old New York Daily News Building, at 220 East 42nd Street, was "New York 17, NY"; it became "New York, NY 10017."
In the early Autumn of 1956, tensions were rising in Hungary and Egypt. Australia began TV broadcasting. Anastasio Somoza, President of Nicaragua, was assassinated; 2 of his sons would also be President, their regimes ending no better. Reynold Johnson and his team of IBM scientists, who would later invent the videocassette tape, invented the hard disk drive.
In the days surrounding Maglie's no-hitter, track and golf legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and FIFA President and World Cup founder Jules Rimet, and Albert Von Tilzer, who wrote the melody for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," died. Soccer legend Paolo Rossi, and middle-distance runner Sebastian Coe, and tennis icon Martina Navratilova were born. On the very day of the perfect game, actress Stephanie Zimbalist was born.
That's what the world was like on Monday afternoon, October 8, 1956, as Don Larsen took the mound for Game 5 of the World Series.
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Here was the Dodgers' starting lineup:
2B 19 Jim "Junior" Gilliam
SS 1 Harold "Pee Wee" Reese
CF 4 Edwin "Duke" Snider
3B 42 Jackie Robinson
1B 14 Gil Hodges
LF 15 Edmundo "Sandy" Amoros
RF 6 Carl "The Reading Rifle" Furillo
C 39 Roy Campanella
P 35 Sal "The Barber" Maglie
Granted, Walter Alston was the manager of the defending World Champions, but what was he thinking? Robinson, an ideal leadoff man but not with much home run power, batting 4th? Furillo, a former batting champion, 7th? Campy, a terrific power hitter, 8th?!?
And for the Yankees:
RF 9 Hank Bauer
1B 15 Joe Collins
CF 7 Mickey Mantle
C 8 Lawrence "Yogi" Berra
LF 17 Enos Slaughter
2B 1 Billy Martin
SS 12 Gil McDougald
3B 6 Andy Carey
P 18 Don Larsen
2B 19 Jim "Junior" Gilliam
SS 1 Harold "Pee Wee" Reese
CF 4 Edwin "Duke" Snider
3B 42 Jackie Robinson
1B 14 Gil Hodges
LF 15 Edmundo "Sandy" Amoros
RF 6 Carl "The Reading Rifle" Furillo
C 39 Roy Campanella
P 35 Sal "The Barber" Maglie
Granted, Walter Alston was the manager of the defending World Champions, but what was he thinking? Robinson, an ideal leadoff man but not with much home run power, batting 4th? Furillo, a former batting champion, 7th? Campy, a terrific power hitter, 8th?!?
And for the Yankees:
RF 9 Hank Bauer
1B 15 Joe Collins
CF 7 Mickey Mantle
C 8 Lawrence "Yogi" Berra
LF 17 Enos Slaughter
2B 1 Billy Martin
SS 12 Gil McDougald
3B 6 Andy Carey
P 18 Don Larsen
The umpires were:
* At home plate, Ralph "Babe" Pinelli, a former 3rd baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, who was calling his last games before retiring after 22 seasons as a National League umpire.
* At 1st base, an American League ump who had been a two-way back for the football New York Giants, appearing in 5 NFL Championship Games, winning in 1938.
* At 2nd base, Lynton "Dusty" Boggess, an NL ump and a former St. Louis Cardinal farmhand.
* At 3rd base, an AL ump, a Brooklyn native, and a former minor league catcher, who would be the 1st base umpire for Catfish Hunter's perfect game in 1968.
* In left field, Tom Gorman, a Manhattan native who pitched 4 games for the Giants in 1939 before becoming an NL ump.
* And, in right field, Ed Runge, an AL ump whose son Paul and grandson Brian also became major league umps.
At 1:02 PM, Eastern Time, Pinelli yelled, "Play ball!" and a crowd of 64,519 was ready to go. Larsen began the game by striking Gilliam out. He got to 3 balls on Reese, but struck him out. He would not get to 3 balls on another batter that day. He got Snider to line out to right. In the Yankee half of the 1st, Bauer popped to short, Collins was unable to beat out a bunt to 3rd, and Mantle flew to left.
The closest call came leading off the top of the 2nd inning, when Robinson hit a sharp grounder off Carey's glove. McDougald, who moved from 3rd to short in the Yankee lineup after Phil Rizzuto was released a few weeks earlier, took it, and just barely threw Robinson out. Larsen then struck Hodges out, and got Amoros to pop to 2nd. For the Yankees, Berra popped to short, Slaughter flew to left, and Martin struck out.
In the 3rd, Larsen got Furillo to fly to right, struck Campanella out, and got Maglie to line out to Mantle. McDougald grounded to 3rd, Carey popped up behind the plate where the ball was caught by Campanella, and Larsen did the same.
In the top of the 4th, Larsen got Gilliam to ground to 2nd, got Reese to do the same, and struck Snider out. Maglie, whom Dodger fans despised when he was the headhunting ace of their arch-rivals, actually had a perfect game going himself going into the bottom of the 4th. He got Bauer to ground to 2nd, and struck Collins out. But Mickey Mantle broke it up with a home run into the right field seats. It wasn't one of Mantle's famed towering drives, but it wasn't a "short porch" home run, either: It would have been a home run in just about any ballpark. Maglie then got Berra to line to center, but it was 1-0 Yankees.
In the 5th, Robinson hit a long fly to right, but Bauer caught it. Hodges came up, and drove the ball to Yankee Stadium's famed left-center "Death Valley." Mantle made a running, onehanded, backhanded catch. It was about 420 feet from home plate, and was nearly as remarkable as the 440-foot catch Willie Mays had made 2 World Series earlier. Perhaps even more so, since, unlike Willie, Mickey wasn't known as a spectacular fielder (though that may have been because so much fuss was made about his hitting). Larsen got Amoros to ground to 2nd.
Slaughter led off the bottom of the 5th with a walk. Martin tried to bunt him over, but the Dodgers got the lead run. And then McDougald hit a line shot at Reese, who caught it, and threw over to Hodges to double Martin off. End of 5, Yankees 1, Dodgers 0.
Larsen got Furillo to pop up to 2nd, then got Campanella to do the same, and struck Maglie out. With 6 innings gone, people began to talk about the fact that a no-hitter was in progress. But old superstitions die hard. No one wanted to say the word "no-hitter" for fear of jinxing it.
After all, none had ever been itched in the World Series before. The Yankees' Herb Pennock came within 4 outs of a perfect game in 1927. In 1947, the Yankees' Bill Bevens needed 1 more out against the Dodgers, but he had walked 10 batters, and Cookie Lavagetto cost him the game with a 2-RBI double. That was only 9 years earlier, and 1 Yankee from that game was in this one: Berra.
When Larsen sat down in the dugout, everybody near him got up and moved to the other end of the dugout. After the 7th, he purposely sat down next to Mantle, and said, "Hey, Mickey, can you believe I got a no-hitter going?" Mickey jumped up, and said, "Get away from me!"
Equally nervous was Berra, who said, many years later, "I think I woulda thought more about it if we had a 9-0 lead: 'Ooh, he's got a no-hitter goin'.' But, at 2-0, I was just worried about winning the game."
Yogi was right to worry. Snider was that season's NL home run leader and the previous season's RBI leader, and would end up with 407 career home runs. At the time, comparing him to Mantle and Willie Mays among New York's center fielders was no joke. Hodges would end his career with 370 home runs. Campanella had won 3 NL Most Valuable Player awards, and had been the NL RBI leader in 1953. That same year, Furillo had been batting champion. Robinson was batting champion and MVP in 1949. These were dangerous hitters, as Larsen had found out firsthand in Game 2.
Carey led off the bottom of the 6th with a single. Larsen sacrificed him to 2nd. Bauer singled him home. Collins singled, but Mantle grounded into a double play. End of 6: Yankees 2, Dodgers 0.
Top of the 7th: Larsen got Gilliam to ground to short, Reese to fly to center, and Snider to fly to left. Bottom of the 7th: Berra popped to 3rd, Slaughter flew to left, Martin singled to left, McDougald walked, and Carey grounded to short for a force play.
Top of the 8th: Robinson grounded back to Larsen. Hodges lined out to Carey. Amoros flew to center. Bottom of the 8th: Maglie was still pitching strong, and struck out the side: Larsen, Bauer and Collins.
Top of the 9th. A huge audience was watching Mel Allen call the game on NBC-TV, and listening to Bob Wolff on CBS radio. There had never been a no-hitter pitched in 53 years of World Series play. And the term "perfect game" wasn't widely known, either: It had been done by such luminaries as John Montgomery Ward, Cy Young and Addie Joss, but hadn't been done by anyone since another journeyman, Charlie Robertson, did it for the Chicago White Sox in 1922.
Furillo led off, and hit a long drive to right, barely going foul. He flew to right again, but, this time, it was a comparatively easy catch for Bauer. Campanella grounded to 2nd. Just 1 out to go.
Alston sent Dale Mitchell up to pinch-hit for Maglie. As a Cleveland Indian, Mitchell had been in the opposing dugout for Mays' catch, but had always hit well against the Yankees. He was a .312 lifetime hitter, a 2-time All-Star, and a member of the Indians' 1948 World Champions. This would, however, turn out to be the last career at-bat for the 35-year-old lefty-hitting left fielder from Colony, Oklahoma.
Larsen threw a pitch that Pinelli called a ball. Then he threw a pitch that Pinelli called a strike.
Wolff: "I guarantee you that nobody, but nobody, has left this ballpark. And if somebody did, by chance, manage to leave early, man, he is missing the greatest!"
It was 3:08 PM. The count was 1-and-2. Larsen threw his 97th pitch of the afternoon. It snuck over the outside corner. Mitchell took the pitch. He died in 1987, still insisting that the pitch was a ball. Well, even if Pinelli had called it as such, the count would have been 2-and-2, and not to Mitchell's advantage.
But Pinelli called, "Strike three!" Ballgame over. Shutout over. No-hitter over. Perfect game over. Yankees win.
Wolff's call: "Two strikes, ball one, here's the pitch: Strike three! A no-hitter, a perfect game for Don Larsen! Yogi Berra leaps on Larsen!"
It remains the greatest pitching performance in baseball history, and it was by an ordinary pitcher who was usually so unserious, his teammates called him Gooney Bird. But he had done what no other pitcher -- not Christy Mathewson, not Walter or Randy Johnson, not Lefty Grove, not Bob Feller, not Whitey Ford, not Sandy Koufax, not Bob Gibson, not Tom Seaver, not Steve Carlton, not Roger Clemens, not Greg Maddux -- has ever done: Pitch a no-hitter in the World Series. And he made it a perfect game. And he did it against the defending World Champions, with only a 2-0 lead, in what was really a must-win game.
That Game 7 would prove calamitous for the Brooks, as Don Newcombe got shelled. Yogi hit 2 homers, Elston Howard added one, and Moose added another, a grand slam. Johnny Kucks pitched a 3-hit shutout, and the Yankees won, 9-0, avenging the previous year's defeat.
The last out was Jackie Robinson. Kucks struck him out, but Berra couldn't handle it. Perhaps remembering Game 4 of the 1941 World Series, where a similar play cost the Dodgers against the Yankees, Robinson ran to 1st. Unlike the ill-fated Mickey Owen in 1941, however, Yogi was able to throw Jackie out.
No one knew it at the time, but that was Jackie's last at-bat. He retired in the off-season. Also not known at the time: That Game 7 was the last World Series game the Brooklyn Dodgers ever played. After 1 more season, they moved to Los Angeles. At the same time, the Giants moved to San Francisco. There would not be another "Subway Series" until 2000, Yankees vs. Mets.
On May 17, 1998, David Wells pitched a perfect game for the Yankees. He went to the same high school as Larsen, Point Loma in San Diego. On July 18, 1999, the Yankees honored Yogi, and had him catch a ceremonial first ball from Larsen. Wells had been traded, so he wasn't there. David Cone pitched a perfect game as Larsen and Berra watched.
Yogi and Don, a few Old-Timers' Days ago.
On September 21, 2008, the last game was played at the old Yankee Stadium. As part of pregame ceremonies, the 3 men who pitched perfect games there, and their catchers, assembled on the mound: Larsen and Berra, Wells and Jorge Posada, and Cone and Joe Girardi.
Left ot right: Girardi, Cone, Larsen, Berra, Wells, Posada
Still living and on the rosters, but not playing in the game, are: Yankees Whitey Ford and Bob Cerv; and Dodgers Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Roger Craig, Sandy Koufax (required to be on the roster as a "bonus baby," but not yet the pitcher he would become), Randy Jackson (not the Jackson 5 singer or the American Idol panelist) and Ed Roebuck -- who came from Brownsville… Pennsylvania, not Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Larsen's gem is no longer the only no-hitter in postseason history -- Roy Halladay turned the trick for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010 -- but it's still the only perfect game in postseason history, and still the only no-hitter in a game later than the Division Series.
Larsen's gem is no longer the only no-hitter in postseason history -- Roy Halladay turned the trick for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010 -- but it's still the only perfect game in postseason history, and still the only no-hitter in a game later than the Division Series.
UPDATE: Cerv died in 2017. Roebuck died in 2018. Newcombe and Jackson died in 2019. Larsen died on New Year's Day 2020. Ford died later that year. As of the dawn of the 2023 season, Erskine, Craig and Koufax are still alive, but no Yankees from the game are.
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