The Perfect Yankee: The Incredible Story of the Greatest Miracle in Baseball History

Sporting News, The, Oct 21, 1996 by Steve Gietschier

(By Don Larsen with Mark Shawl 250 pp. Sagamore Publishing. $22.95).

The simple truth is this: Greatest miracle in baseball history or not, the story of Don

Larsen's perfect game, Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, is just too short. Despite the intense drama of the accomplishment, 27 batters faced and 27 batters retired just do not make a book. Something must be done to flesh out this tale into a complete package.

Larsen and his co-author have attempted to solve this problem by devoting one or two chapters to each of the game's innings: One chapter to the first, the third, the fifth and the ninth, and two to each of the others. They have added four introductory chapters on the Dodgers, the Yankess, the first four games of the Series and the night before Game 5. They have broken up their narrative with two biographical chapters, one chapter on baseball's other perfect games and one on the umpires. Finally, they have added three concluding chapters: one on the postgame celebration, one on the day after and one bringing Larsen's career to an end.

It is a gallant effort, but, sadly, this elaborate scheme doesn't work. Primarily, there is too little Don Larsen in it and too much Mark Shawl One specific example will suffice. In the top of the first inning, Larsen faced Jim Gilliam, Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider. He threw 15 pitches, striking out Gilliam and Reese and getting Snider on a line drive to right. To make a chapter of this, Shaw has augmented Larsen's basic account with mini-biographies of third-string catcher Charlie Silvera, Gilliam and right fielder Hank Bauer. Clearly, these words were written by Shaw with little input from Larsen.

In the fourth inning, the same three batters came to the plate, naturally. This time Snider is the subject of the digressive essay. And in the seventh, Reese gets the same treatment.

These sketches are competently done. They include extensive passages from other books as well as quotations from the TV and radio announcers who did the game. But they are not Don Larsen's words or thoughts.

At first glance, doing a book on the best-pitched baseball game ever sounds like a fine idea. But as Larsen proved on October 8, 1956, good intentions are not enough. Execution is the key.