Larry Sherry: former World Series MVP recalls his career in the majors: Dodgers reliever won two games and saved two in Los Angeles' six-game Fall Classic victory over the White Sox in 1959

Baseball Digest, Nov, 2005 by Larry Bortstein

THE HOMETOWN HERO OF THE first World Series winner from the West Coast was an unlikely one, not because of what he accomplished but the lengths he had to travel to get there.

In 1959, only a year after the former Brooklyn Dodgers landed in Los Angeles with a resounding thud, finishing seventh in the National League, they captured the World Series behind an unprecedented series of relief appearances against the American League champion Chicago White Sox by Los Angeles native son Larry Sherry.

The 6-2, 204-pound right-hander saved the first two Dodger victories and received credit for the wins in the other two as Los Angeles prevailed in the six-game Series.

In the four decades since Sherry's heroics, there has never been anything to equal his 1959 performance, though John Wetteland saved all four Yankees victories in their six-game Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1996 and Keith Foulke closed out all four Red Sox wins in Boston's sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004.

The art of relief pitching wasn't nearly as defined in 1959 as it is today. There was no closer, no set-up man, no middle man. Sherry and other bullpen operatives of the day could be and were summoned to the mound in pressure situations in the early innings or late innings.

"I got the reputation for coming in and getting people out, whatever the situation was," recalled Sherry, who turned 70 last July 25, and is a longtime resident of Mission Viejo, California, in Orange County between Los Angeles and San Diego. "There was no such thing as long relief or short relief. You came in when they needed you."

Short relief specialists of today would find Sherry's workload in the 1959 World Series unimaginable. He worked 12.2 innings in his four appearances, twice going the last two innings, once the final three innings and in the Dodgers' decisive 9-3 victory in Game 6, he pitched the last five and two-thirds innings and got the win after taking over when starter Johnny Podres, who was given an 8-0 lead, pitched himself into trouble with one out in the bottom of the fourth frame.

Sherry allowed only one earned run (an 0.71 ERA) and eight hits in the four games, striking out five White Sox batters and walking only two.

During the 1959 regular season, Larry alternated between starting and relief work, pitching in 23 games and compiling a 7-2 record. He made nine starts, and his only complete game was a shutout. He saved three Dodger victories out of the bullpen.

He was 24 that year and a decade earlier no one in his athletic family could have imagined he'd achieve more than any of his three older brothers. One brother, Norm, grew up to catch for the Dodgers and later managed the California Angels. He and Larry occasionally worked as battery-mates for the Dodgers between 196062, the first time on May 7, 1960. No set of brothers have, respectively, pitched and caught, for the same major league team in the same game since the Sherry boys.

Larry was a longshot to succeed in sports. He was born with club feet, a disfiguring affliction not often seen today which causes the feet to turn inward. His mother took a fall while she was pregnant with him and family members always believed that accident caused her youngest son to have his foot problems.

Until he was nearly 12, young Sherry had severe trouble even walking. After a series of operations, the first when he was six months old, and being outfitted with special shoes that he has continued to wear throughout his life, Larry became determined to follow his three brothers--Stan, Norm and George--into baseball.

At Fairfax High in Los Angeles, Larry was also a star basketball player. He was captain of the basketball team and set a school record by scoring 22 points in a game.

Sherry's arm and his size helped him reach the majors, but it was only when he developed a slider that he became an effective big league pitcher.

"My brother Norm worked with me on that," Larry recalled. "He also was the one that got Sandy Koufax to lay off on his fastball a little, so he'd have better control of it. Norm may have helped Sandy get to the Hall of Fame, but he helped me get to the majors."

The Dodgers signed Larry after he'd completed high school and bounced around the minors for five seasons, fighting control problems.

Briefly called up to the Dodgers in 1958, he pitched four ineffective innings in five games, allowing 10 hits and seven walks and compiling an ERA of 13.50. That rocky beginning got him demoted to Spokane in the Pacific Coast League, where he had a 6-14 record.

That's when big brother Norm came to the rescue. Playing together for the Maracaibo club in the Cuban League in the winter of 1958, they developed Larry's slider into an effective "out" pitch. Though he began the 1959 season with St. Paul in the American Association, Larry was called up to the Dodgers on Independence Day.

He lost his first two big league decisions but was undefeated in seven decisions the rest of the way while posting an overall 2.19 ERA. Hurling 94 innings, he gave up only 75 hits, walked 43 and struck out 72.