Here's a hint ... Don Larsen

That's right, Richie would know that October 8th, 1956 was a great day in Yankee history.  Don Larsen threw the first ever "perfect game" in the World Series and only the 5th perfect game in baseball history.  As you may or may not know, Don was considered a 'journeyman' pitcher and had pitched for 2 other teams before the Yankees. He ended his career having pitched for 7 different teams.  It just goes to show you that anyone of us could be tomorrow's hero. Fortunately none of us will have to endure Yogi Berra's hug.  Don retired in 1968 with a career batting average of .242; that's probably a permanent record for an American League pitcher. Asked if he ever got tired of talking about that game,  Don replied, "No, why should I?"

Well we didn't have a perfect game today but we did have enough players for 4 teams even though we had to use the field with the short porch as the other fields were too wet to use.

On the old 'A' Field with the short fences, the Home team fielded Bloom, Merritt, Marino, Shapler, Hearn, D. Hill, Kline, Bowley. Byrd, Mohan and Gibson against Moots, Fulton, Chrest, Oesterreich, S.Hill, Miller, Legett, Thompson, Mills and L. Baker.

The game was really decided by the 4th inning as the Visitors had hammered out an 11 to 5 lead.  The Home team managed to put up 4 in the fifth to only 2 for the visitors but then went scoreless until posting one final run in the 9th.  Despite the 200 ft fences on the old "A" field nobody hit one out.  Duff Hill and Ed Kline had extra base hits for the Home Team while Herb O., Steve Hill and Ron Thompson provided the extra base power for the visitors.

Final Score Visitors 17; Home Team 10

The other game pitted Coffman, Witmer, D'Herrin, Jacobson, Diaz, Zelazny, Grabb, Simon, Wells, Powell and King as the Visitors against Benson, Toro, Lafoon, Jacobs, Davis, Butler, Hartley, Wise, Lopiccollo and Dampier for the Home Team.

Russ King's Visitors started out like they couldn't be stopped posting 5 runs in each of the first two innings on a triple by Larry Grabb and a double by Larry Wells.  But the Home team hung in there posting 9 of their own off of a Juan Toro homer and double, plus doubles by Frank Jacobs, Ron Butler and Tom Wise.  

In the 3rd inning the Visitors only posted 1 run while the Home squad asserted themselves with 5 runs on  a doubles by Pat Lopiccollo and JD Davis. The Home team posted 2 more runs in the 4th highlited by another pair of doubles off the bats of Wise and Butler.

In the 5th the Visitors staged a brief rally posting 5 runs on a Zelazny double and a raft of singles but the Home boys replied with 3 of their own off a Butler double.  In the 6th the Home team shut-out the Visitors and posted 4 more highlighted by a Juan Toro double to make the score 16-23 in favor of the Home team.

Then the scoring slowed down.  In fact the scoring stopped altogether. The visitors failed to score after the fifth inning posting four gooseeggs in a row while the Home squad posted zeros in the 7th and 8th and then didn't have to bat in the 9th.

Final Score 16-23.   No Shame for the Home Team.

Top Hitters:

• Schpeler  4 for 5
• S.Hill 3 for 4 walk, double
• Miller 4 for 5
• Thompson 3 for 3 double, walk
• Mills 2 for 3 walk
• Coffman 4 for 5 
• Toro 4 for 6 HR 2-doubles
• Lafoon 5 for 6
• Jacobs 4 for 6 triple
• Davis 5 for 5 2-doubles
• Butler 4 for 5 3-doubles