Baseball History Series: The 1956 World Series Was About Far More Than Don Larsen

 

Last week it was revealed that Yankee Domingo German, who pitched a perfect game against the Oakland A’s this June would miss the rest of the 2023 Season because he was entering treatment for alcohol abuse. In a sense this now makes it clear that German is a parallel for Don Larsen, the Yankee pitcher whose moment of greatness came when he threw a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Don Larsen had the same problems with alcohol abuse that German seems to have. During spring training in 1956 Larsen showed up when he wrapped a car around a palm tree. One of the famous stories about Game 5 had the opening line: “The imperfect man pitched a perfect game yesterday.”

German’s travails before he joined the Yankees and today parallel Larsen and will probably talked about in that sense by New York sportswriters in the weeks and months to come. I thought I would use this as a jumping off point to talk not only about Don Larsen, but the Yankees team he played for, the Brooklyn Dodgers and stories about that World Series you might not know.

As a historian of the Yankees one is aware Larsen’s stint with the team came during what is the most dominant dynasty in baseball history. From 1949 to 1960 Casey Stengel’s Yankees would win ten pennants and seven world series in twelve years, a period of dominance that not even prior Yankee teams had ever matched. Despite that, many have questioned Casey Stengel’s skills as a manager.

Some of this is justified. Prior to joining the Yankees Stengel had only managed the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1934 to 1936 and never finished higher than fifth place. He had then moved on to the Boston Braves and had never been able to get much higher than sixth. Before taking over the Yankees, he had only once had a season over .500 in the majors. Even after he began winning pennants on an annual basis, his ability as a manager was still questioned, with the most frequent argument being that the Yankees had so much talent anybody could have done his job and won the pennants he did.

I’d actually argue the opposite is true. While the Yankees of the 1920s were loaded with talent from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on down and Joe McCarthy Yankees of the 1930s and 1940s were led by DiMaggio and several more than qualified Hall of Famers, a look at the Yankees rosters of that era shows a lot of players having good years, but not a lot of Hall-of-Famers. During Stengel’s entire tenure as manager, the only regular players who are no questions asked Hall-of-Famers were Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra and the only Hall of Fame pitcher was Whitey Ford. Phil Rizutto, one of the Cooperstown’s most questionable choices also played on six pennant winners and there’s an argument for Allie Reynolds to go in as a pitcher and Billy Martin for his managing, but beyond there are very few players who had great careers and the ones who did only seem to have their best years with the Yankees. Some might argue that this is because of Stengel’s constant platooning of players and his reliance on a five man rotation instead of the four man one which was standard until the 1970s. The truth is, given an opportunity to play with other teams (and there were frequent trades throughout this era) few players would ever do nearly as well as they did with the Yankees. Don Larsen himself is a prime example.

At the end of the 1954 season, GM George Weiss was concerned about the Yankees pitching. So he engineered a trade with the seventh place Baltimore Orioles. The two Orioles most critical to the trade were Larsen and Bob Turley. People could understand Turley’s value: in 1954 he had managed to go 14-15 with a team that had got 53-101. Larsen, however, had just suffered through one of the worst seasons of the decade, going 3-21.  Weiss thought that he might have ‘potential’ mainly because two of his wins had come against the Yankees.

Turley would pay off immediately, going 18-13 in 1955. Larsen, however, spent half the season in the minors but would go 9-2 after being called up. It’s worth noting Larsen was a superb athlete overall: he hit fifteen homeruns in his career (Stengel would occasionally bat him eighth) and was such a fast runner that he was used as a pinch runner at times. Larsen had the potential for greatness, but he did not have the discipline for it. In 1956, he had what would be by far his best season with the Yankees. He went 11-5.

The 1956 Yankees were one of the best teams Stengel ever managed. Mantle had one of the greatest seasons in baseball history, winning the Triple Crown and was the unanimous choice for American League MVP. The rest of the team was more than supportive. Yogi Berra had one of his greatest years, hitting 30 home runs and driving in 105. First baseman Moose Skowron hit 23 homers and drove in 90 runs. 35 year old right fielder Hank Bauer had his best year of his career, hitting 26 home runs and driving in 84 runs. The Yankees would break their team record by hitting 190 home runs that year.

The pitching was nearly as good. Whitey Ford won 19 games, the most he ever won while pitching for Stengel. Bigger surprises where Tom Sturdivant, who won 16 games and Johnny Kucks who went 18-9. The team would lead the league in runs scored, home runs, saves and double plays. They would stroll to the pennant, beating Cleveland by nine games.

Any loyal Brooklyn fan will tell you tearfully this was the last pennant ‘Dem Bums’  ever won. What they tend to forget is that even had the team stayed in Brooklyn, they might not have won a pennant for a long time, certainly not with The Boys of Summer.

Because the Dodgers, like the park they played in, were long in the tooth. Pee Wee Reese was 38. Jackie Robinson was 37 and planning for this to be his last season. Roy Campanella was 34 and he was no longer playing as he did due to an injury to his hand. Carl Furillo was 34, Gil Hodges was 32. Duke Snider was 29, but he wouldn’t age particularly well and though he led the National League in home runs that year, he wouldn’t have a long career. The Dodgers would essentially manage to contend in the 1960s because while their regulars were old, their pitchers were young. Sandy Koufax had come up at 19 and Don Drysdale had joined the team at 21 that year, though neither would pitch much.

Indeed, the Dodgers spent most of the 1956 season fighting for the pennant with both the Milwaukee Braves and the surprising Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were the bigger shock, having not truly contended for the pennant since winning the World Series in 1940. The Reds contended almost entirely on the home run that year: they hid 221, tying the all-time major league record. Most of the regulars on the Reds were one-dimensional sluggers with little ability outside of power. However, that year witness a rookie in left field named Frank Robinson. That year, he hit 38 home runs, tying a record for rookies that stood for thirty-one years. It was the start of one of the most dominant careers in baseball history.

The bigger problem for the Dodgers that year were the Braves. Hank Aaron won the battle title that year while ‘only’ hitting 28 home runs. The bulk of the offense was provided by third baseman Eddie Matthews who hit 37 home runs and Joe Adcock, who hit 38. The pitching staff was the best in baseball. Warren Spahn won 20 games, Lew Burdette won 19 and Bob Buhl won 18. The Braves pitching would lead the National League in shutouts, complete games and ERA.

The Dodgers only managed to overtake Milwaukee near the end of the season, and it was almost entirely on the back of Don Newcombe, who had one of the greatest seasons in major league history. He would go 27-7 and threw 268 innings. He would win the first ever Cy Young award, given for both Leagues and also win the National League’s MVP. Still the Dodgers might not have won the pennant had they not traded for Sal Maglie, who had spent the previous five years pitching for their hated crosstown rival the New York Giants. He had gone 13-5 and would end up being the starter for Game 1 of the World Series.

Maglie would face off against Whitey Ford, who was not yet the World Series juggernaut he would become famous for being. While he had beaten Brooklyn twice the previous year, in Game 1 he had one of his shortest outings, only lasting three innings before a three-run home run by Gil Hodges drove him from the game. This set up Game 2…and one of the quieter lies in statistical history.

The online baseball almanac has Don Larsen’s era for the 1956 World Series as 0.00. This is a flat out lie because it ignores the 1.2 innings he pitched in Game 2.

Larsen started against Don Newcombe who would be driven from the game in the second inning after Yogi Berra hit a grand slam home run to put the Yankees up 6-0. Larsen did not make it through the second either. Neither did Johnny Kucks. By the end of the second it was tied 6-6. The game turned out to be a slugfest and the Yankees would be outslugged, using 8 pitchers in what would be a 13-8 loss. No one knew it but the Yankees would not have to use their bullpen for the rest of the series.

Whitey Ford was back in form when the series returned to Yankee Stadium, eventually throwing an eight-hitter and winning 6-3. The next day Tom Sturdivant threw a six-hitter and won 6-2.

Since we all know everything there is to know about Game 5, it’s worth bringing up what happened in Game 6 and Game 7, because in a way it makes for a better story.

In Game 6 Bob Turley went out to start against Clem Labine. Turley pitched one of the greatest games of his career, striking out thirteen batters in ten innings and giving up just four hits. Labine, a reliever and spot starter, however, was just as good and the game was scoreless going into the ninth.

In the tenth Turley walked Reese. Junior Gilliam sacrificed him to second. Stengel ordered Turley to walk Duke Snider to pitch to Jackie Robinson. Robinson hit a long fly ball that Enos Slaughter in left field misjudged. The Dodgers won 1-0. It was the last run that Jackie Robinson ever drove in.

After the game ended, Stengel told Turley that he had pitched the greatest game he’d ever seen – “that it was better than Larsen’s.”

Now a note before Game 7. The Yankees were already mad at the presence of Enos Slaughter on the team. In August of 1956, in order to make room for Slaughter on the World Series, George Weiss had released the popular Phil Rizutto. Rizutto had barely played in 1956 but the Yankee teams were outraged at how ham-handedly Weiss had handled it and were further infuriated that they had done so for Slaughter, who at 40 was two years older than Rizutto. When Slaughter made this error to cost them the game, the Yankees were seething but no one had the nerve to say anything.

Except Billy Martin. Martin was one of Stengel’s most beloved players and was the only player who Stengel would allow to talk back to him. Riding back to Yankee Stadium, Martin yelled at Stengel that they would lose the series if Slaughter were still in the outfield. Stengel asked him who he would play. “You better put Elston Howard out there, and you better get Moose Skowron’s ass back on first base.”

Howard had spent the previous several days in the hospital with a strep throat. He had just been released. Skowron, despite his excellent season, had spent most of the series riding the bench as Stengel had put the more experienced Joe Collins at first. The next day Howard was in left field and Skowron was at first.

Don Newcombe started Game 7 against Johnny Kucks. Yogi Berra would hit two two-run home runs against Newcombe, the second would drive him from the game in the third. Elston Howard would hit a home run and Moose Skowron would hit a grand slam. Kucks pitched a three hitter and the Yankees won 9-0. In the celebration in the Yankee clubhouse, Stengel sought out Martin. “You’re a smart little bastard, aren’t ya?” he said as the two embraced.

Larsen would win the World Series MVP for his perfect game, but in all honesty it should have gone to Berra. He had batted .360, hit three home runs and 10 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for most RBI in a World Series set in 1932. And considering that he caught Larsen’s perfect game, Berra was at least entitled to it as much as Larsen’s was.

I could not resist ending this article with one of the most famous exchanges in sports history. In the aftermath of the celebration in the Yankee clubhouse, a reporter asked Stengel if this was the best game Larsen had ever pitched. Stengel paused for a moment before giving his answer: “So far.”