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One happy fan

Larsen linked to Yankee perfection again

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Posted: Sunday July 18, 1999 11:07 PM

Don Larsen and David Cone embrace after Cone's 88 pitch perfect game. AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pitching a perfect game doesn't mean you've ever seen one. So, Don Larsen decided to stick around at Yankee Stadium just in case.

Good call.

After he recreated his own perfect day before Sunday's game, Larsen sat back and watched David Cone pitch the 14th perfect game in modern history.

"I didn't see mine," Larsen said of his perfect game against Brooklyn in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series -- the only one in Series history. "How could I? I was working."

Larsen was at Yankee Stadium for Yogi Berra Day and even threw out the first pitch to Berra, his catcher for the game in 1956. He planned to watch a few innings before heading back to his hotel.

That changed as soon as he saw Cone pitch.

"As time went on, it was still a perfect game. I would have had to have been silly to leave then," Larsen said. "I'm glad I came to see it."

For more than 40 years, Larsen was the only Yankee to pitch a perfect game. Now he is linked to the only other two Yankees to do it.

Larsen went to the same high school, Point Loma in San Diego, as David Wells, who achieved perfection on May 17, 1998, against Minnesota.

And he was the last person to talk to Cone and touch him before Cone threw his perfect game against the Expos.

Larsen was the first Yankee to pitch a perfect game. AP

"We shook hands before I threw out the first pitch and I wished him good luck," Larsen said.

After the game, they embraced, forever linked in baseball history.

"He's pretty smooth," Larsen said of Cone. "He had total command of his pitches."

As Larsen watched Cone breeze through the Expos lineup, it was only natural to reflect back to 1956. He recalled a catch Mickey Mantle made in left-center field that would have been a home run in any other park, and he remembered Berra leaping into his arms after the final out.

"I haven't woken up since then," Larsen said. "I thought about my day a lot. I'm sure David is going to think about this every day of his life."

Many of the Yankees' greats were on hand Sunday, as the team relived and later made history.

Berra was honored after his 14-year feud with owner George Steinbrenner ended in January. Also on hand were Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Jerry Coleman and Bobby Richardson, who all played for New York in 1956.

"We recreated our game before and he did it for real in the game," Berra said. "I'm glad we were all here for it."

Announcer Bob Wolff, who called Larsen's game on TV, was in the press box to watch Cone's.

"I was rising and falling with the waves of the crowd," Wolff said. "It was just like 1956."

 

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