Congratulations to the Astros on their no-hit win over the Phillies. It’s only the second no-hitter in World Series history.
As baseball fans and Columbian readers know, the first World Series no-hitter was pitched by Don Larsen when the New York Yankees (aka Evil Empire) beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 in game five of the 1956 World Series. Larsen pitched the entire game and in addition to being a no-hitter it was also a perfect game. Twenty-seven Dodgers up, 27 out.
I was in Mrs. Klotz’s sixth-grade class at PS 101 in Brooklyn. (Elementary schools only had numbers, not names). She wouldn’t let us listen to the game as a class. One boy had one of those new transistor radios and he was allowed to sit in the back of the room and periodically relate the game’s progress to the rest of the class. We knew tragedy was afoot. School ended before the game so I stopped in at Joe’s Service Station on my way home to hear the remainder of the game. It was there that I learned the devastating news: Don Larsen had pitched a perfect game against our beloved Bums. Brooklyn and me have never been the same.
What’s ironic is that Larsen was only a mediocre pitcher, having a lifetime record of 81-91 and ERA of 3.78
