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Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
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Perfection! Don Larsen was a mediocre pitcher for the New York Yankees. But 50 years ago in a World Series game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he pulled off one of the greatest individual feats in sports, the only perfect game in playoff history. |
Vin Scully, in his broadcast that day said, “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the greatest pitched game ever pitched in baseball history.”
The next day in the Washington Post, the great baseball writer Shirley Povich led off his column, “The million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit, no-run, no-man-reach-first game in a World Series.”
Recalling the event Yankees public-address announcer Bob Sheppard said, "If Nolan Ryan had done it, if Sandy Koufax had done it, if Don Drysdale had done it, I would have nodded and said, 'Well, it could happen.' But Don Larsen?"
Recently, Cleveland Plain-Dealer reporter Paul Hoynes recalled the magnitude of covering this event, “I read a story somewhere about the writers who were covering that game. One writer was overwhelmed by the event. He couldn't get going on his story. Hall of Famer Dick Young was sitting next to him, saw he was in trouble, leaned over and typed one of the deathless leads of our business on the writer's typewriter: "The imperfect man pitched the perfect game. It captures the unlikeliness and greatness of the event perfectly."
It took him 97 pitches to retire 27 Brooklyn Dodgers in front of 64,519 Yankee Stadium fans, 50 years ago. “Fifty is the big one” Larsen told me. Does he worry that someone else will pitch a perfect game? “Records are made to be broken,” Larsen says, “but they can only tie me, they can never beat me.”
Sports reporter Dan LeBatard told me, “(It’s) not humanly possible to be better than perfect ... add the stakes to it, and you have the best game ever pitched ... Jim Edmonds has made 10 catches as good as the one Willie Mays did ... but Mays did it in a World Series ... pressure bursts pipes, so it is pretty hard on the human psyche ... and Larsen, otherwise mediocre, was perfect when pressurized.”
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ira Berkow on its place in history, “Don Larsen's Perfect Game in a World Series is perhaps the most unbeatable record in all of sports. The feat can be tied, though profoundly improbable, but to be topped someone has to pitch a pair of perfect games in a World Series. I think a million monkeys at typewriters over a million years would produce Hamlet quicker.”
ESPN’s Jayson Stark brilliantly shared with me what Larsen’s feat means for the game itself, “Is there any player -- especially any pitcher, and mega-especially any YANKEES pitcher -- who is more associated with one game than Don Larsen? He's one of the most magical names in baseball history. Yet I doubt most people, even most baseball fans, can tell you ANYTHING else about his career. But they can see Yogi Berra jumping into his arms in the grainy black-and-white replay machine in their heads. They know that no one else in the history of the sport -- not a single Hall of Famer, Cy Young or 20-game winner -- has ever pitched a no-hitter in a postseason game. And they know that says something about the beauty of the sport, even when it comes down to the games that matter most. Anyone can have that game, that moment, that cements his place in the lore of baseball forever. So Don Larsen is more than just a human trivia answer. He embodies what makes baseball great.”
This anniversary is a moment that all who loves baseball must share, but it represents more than just baseball, Larsen represents all of us. His lifetime record was 81-91 over 14 seasons with eight teams proved that any person can have that one moment, that one touch with immortality. There are those who have had 15 minutes of fame, but this fun-loving man and his wonderful wife, Corrine, have been celebrating this achievement for 50 years.
I asked Bill James, the baseball analyst what Larsen’s feat means, “Pitching a perfect game in the World Series is sort of like having the President of the United States call you on your cell phone when you're on a first date with your dream girl. It's a combination of eerily random good fortune and the exact right moment for random good fortune to find you. It's like winning the lottery 10 minutes after you find that perfect house you've spent the last four years looking for although you know you could never afford it. Larsen wasn't that good, really, and anyway, nobody is good enough to throw a perfect game in the World Series. It's random. It's a kiss from God. Don Larsen carries God's lipstick on his collar for the rest of his life.
Happy anniversary, Froggy.
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