Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies earlier today threw a no hitter against the Cincinnati Reds, winning 4-0 in only the second no hitter in major league baseball playoff history. He threw to only 28 batters; the only runner reaching base was Jay Bruce, who walked on base with two outs in the fifth inning. Halladay, who had thrown a no hitter as recently as May 29th against the Florida Marlins, was as close to perfect as a pitcher can be without getting to perfection. The rarity of the event in the 107 year history of World Series and championship runs further illuminates the spectacular level of achievement, and focuses further on the singular performance of Yankee Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers and Sal Maglie.
Don Larsen was the definition of a journeyman pitcher with an overall career record of 81 wins against 91 losses, with major league stuff, but a propensity of inconsistency and wildness. He had managed to blow a 6 run lead in game two of the series, and was not initially sure he would be called on to pitch game 5. Regardless, the call to the mound was not wasted, and immediately his catcher Yogi Berra realized something was quite different on the afternoon of October 8th, 1956. Larsen was showing pin point control and substantial velocity. He only went to three balls on one batter the entire game, and only required two significant fielding plays, a ricochet grounder out by Jackie Robinson in the second inning, and a Gil Hodges drive to left center requiring a running catch by Mickey Mantle. Nothing else was really close, and it dawned on Berra the catcher in the eighth inning that Larsen was approaching perfection, much less a no hitter. The Yankee dugout grew deathly quiet to Larsen , and his quips regarding the situation were left empty in the vacant stares of teammates who feared any response would jinx the never previously achieved performance. The mound proved to be the safest and calmest place for Larsen, and he ended the game of 97 pitches with a strikeout of Dale Mitchell , a career .311 hitter. Never before, and, until today, never since had anyone achieved a no hit championship pitching performance, nad though Halladay came close , no one other than Don Larsen has achieved 27 up, 27 down, and 27 out.
Roy Halladay is a Cy Young winner with two no hitters to his credit; Don Larsen is just another pitcher among thousands who played the wonderful game of baseball. For one afternoon in 1956, however, Don Larsen raised his average talent to supernatural levels, and achieved an immortal moment in baseball lore. It is the incredible beauty of baseball that allows these kind of special moments and in a strange way makes autumn the best season of all. Thanks Roy, and thanks, Don.
A Gunslinger Greater Than Favre
As I warned you last month, the saga of Brett Favre has indeed evolved into another final curtain performance with the Minnesota Vikings this year. Now 40 years old, and soon in October 41, Favre is among a small group of warriors that extended their NFL careers into their fifth decade and an even smaller group that continued to change the playing field outcomes with their talent. I certainly wish him well, or at least good health, as he embarks on what he states is his “final” season.
In 1970 another ageless quarterback put together a season that even the gunslinger Favre would have a difficult time emulating. George Blanda managed to play in parts of 4 decades over 26 years in the American and National Football leagues, was an outstanding passer and kicker for the Chicago Bears, Houston Oilers, and Oakland Raiders, and is in the National Football League Hall Of Fame. Nothing, however, competes with the the year of comebacks and drama Blanda put together in 1970. On five consecutive late season games, Blanda at age 43 came off the bench to lead Oakland to 4 wins and a tie, each more scintillating than the last, with improbable last minute 4th quarter touchdowns and field goals , resulting in clutch performance perfection. Before the steroid era, 43 years of age might as well have been 53, and yet Blanda followed his 1970 performance by nearly willing his team to title game victory, scoring all 17 of his team’s points. The ageless one managed amazingly five more quality seasons retiring at 48, just short of 49, and having played in over 340 games and having scored over 2000 points. His coach John Madden remarked of Blanda that men over 40 never really liked him, because their wives would point to Blanda and say, “He’s throwing touchdowns at 45, why can’t you at least cut the grass?”
Brett Favre is likely to be the iron man of his era, starting over 300 games at one of the toughest positions on the field, quarterback, but George Blanda will always be the old warrior who invented “Clutch”. Next time Favre has the title in his sights, he may want to reflect back on the gunslinger who showed how to get it done in the final moments – every time.
A Fierce Competitor
We are experiencing in this major league baseball season of 2010 a return to dominance of the pitcher after 20 years of offense driven baseball. Magnificent pitching performances have been the norm, with several no -hitters including a perfect game as well as a perfect game taken away on an umpire error returning the game to some semblance of balance between offense and defense. As good as the pitching has been, it pales to the amazing 1968 season of one Bob Gibson of the St Louis Cardinals, who took the unique and isolated battle between batter and pitcher personally and considered an opponent scoring on him an insult.
For an entire season, Gibson was a hitter’s worst nightmare. In a season unlikely to be repeated, he went 22-9, pitched 13 complete game shutouts, had an Earned Run Average of 1.12 for the season, had one stretch of 47 straight innings without a run given up, pitched over 300 innings, and held opponent batters to a batting average of .184. Of his nine losses, 5 were 1-0 losses with his team anemically scoring few runs behind him. The dominance was so complete, that Major League Baseball determined as a consequence to lower the pitching mound six inches and take away pitcher’s leverage, thereby in my mind leading to a generation of pitchers with distorted mechanics and blown elbows, taking away the concept of the complete game, as pitch count and inning specialists became more important than mastery of the pitching art.
Gibson continued his mastery in the World Series that year, one of the best ever played, by striking out 17 Detroit Tigers in the first game of the series, a record that stands today. He was ferocious, unyielding, intimidating, in a dominant performance that ended in a ninth inning flourish we are lucky to have caught on tape. The video is of additional interest in that the announcers included a young Harry Carey energetically announcing the game with Kurt Gowdy, and a look at the crowd shows almost all the men in shirts and ties on a sunny hot day in St Louis. The fans understood they were part of a very special tradition and dressed the part.
A complete game masterpiece with record setting strikeouts produced by maybe the best big game clutch pitcher ever, on a team with four Hall of Famers including the manager would be enough to intimidate any team. And the Tigers? They left the first game unbowed and won one of the best played series ever, 4 games to 3.
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Brett Favre – One More Time
We are about to enter the 2010 NFL football season and once again, as we have for the past seven years, the Brett Favre watch has begun. Since 2004, Mr. Favre has created tense off -season scenarios as to whether he would come back to play for “one more year”, and this year will be no different. The current NFL all time leader in touchdown passes, passes thrown, passes completed, yards thrown, interceptions, and dashed hopes and broken hearts of Green Bay Packer fans the world over, will once again marshall the media to follow his vague signals as to his possible return to the fields of play.
Certainly, as it is now several years from Green Bay Packer fans playing a direct role in the kibuke theater Favre performed each summer, the process is much less stinging. Now it is to our delight to watch our silly neighbors to the north to hover over every word and smoke signal. Whether he plays again or not, he will forever be the most entertaining performer on earth. for his last second heroics, feats of incredible creativity, and downright boneheaded plays. Before the hating begins again for his traitorous actions in joining the Vikings and his willingness to rub our nose in it, perhaps just one more look at the greatness that was Brett Favre, Green Bay Packer….