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Don Larsen's prediction was perfect.

Irwin Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

0

ct. 8, 1956 — 50 years ago.
But the memories are as vivid

today as they were then.
During a break, a couple of my ninth-
grade Detroit Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
classmates raced with me to a gas sta-
tion where the radio would be on high.
It was the fifth game of the World
Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers
and the New York Yankees and each
team had won two games. Don Larsen,
27, who didn't last two innings of Game
Two, was pitching for the Yankees.
Sal Maglie, a 39-year-old veteran, was
going for the Dodgers. The odds favored
Maglie, who posted a 13-6 record in
1956 along with a nifty 2.89 earned run
average. It was the seventh straight win-
ning season for Maglie, while Larsen's
career record was only 30-40.
Later in the game, I was the lone
Yeshiva representative at the gas station.
The attendants were huddled around
the radio. I soon learned nothing of
importance happened for the Dodgers.
It was the top of the ninth inning and
not one Brooklyn batter had reached
first base. A few minutes later, Larsen
struck out the last Dodger for a perfect
game. The Yankees had five hits and two
runs, and the Dodgers had zeroes.
I ran back to the Yeshiva and headed
to the classroom. I encountered my
rebbe in the hallway with a minute to
spare. He stopped in his tracks and
asked me, "Who won the game?"
"The Yankees;' I responded. "Larsen
pitched a perfect game' My rebbe
slapped me across the face (Teachers in
most Jewish schools in those days could
do that if they thought a student was
disrespectful)."Don't lie," he said.
I quietly went to my seat for the last
class of the afternoon, without having a
chance to share my historic news with
my friends. Years later, I reminded the
rebbe of this reaction. He chuckled and
said,"Would you have believed me if I
told you Larsen pitched a perfect game?"
From that point on, whenever we
found were in the company of someone
who liked sports, my old rebbe would
say to me, "Tell him the Larsen story"
Around 20 years later, I was working
in the baseball field and found out more.
I was shmoozing with UPI's baseball
writer Milt Richman at an oldtimers
game at Yankee Stadium. Richman, a
native of the Bronx, took a liking to the
old, lowly St. Louis Browns team as a

teen in the 1930s. Milt and his brother,
Art, often hung around the visitors'
clubhouse, waiting for autographs. They
even greeted the Browns when the team
arrived at the New York train station.
As a writer in the 1950s, Richman
befriended Larsen when he began his
career with the Browns and invited him
to his parents' home on Tremont Avenue,
about a mile from Yankee Stadium.
Larsen enjoyed Mrs. Richman's
kosher-style food and the company
While with the Yankees in 1956,
Larsen was a frequent dinner guest at
the Richman home.
The night before Larsen made history,
he shared a cab with Milt Richman and
he told the writer to expect a no-hitter.
Larsen punctuated his prediction by

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Don Larsen: World Series wonder.

pulling out a dollar and telling Richman
to give it to his mother, for her to donate
it to her synagogue.
So, armed with confidence and help
from above, Larsen took the mound.
High above, in the left field stands, was
a 16-year-old from Brooklyn by the
name of Joe Torre. The young Dodgers
fan expected big things from his favor-
ites. Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson,
Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Duke
Snider would be too much for Larsen.
By the ninth inning, Torre couldn't
believe what he was seeing and started
rooting for Larsen. The future manager
of the Yankees was just one of many of
the 65,419 who paid their way in to root
for history instead of their favorite team
from the other side of the river.

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