The Perfect Yankee

Book excerpt: By all accounts, the perfect game pitched by New York Yankees right-hander Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series qualifies as a true miracle. No one knows why it happened, or why an unlikely baseball player such as Larsen was the one who tossed it. In The Perfect Yankee Larsen describes the facts surrounding one of the most famous games in baseball history and details the complete story behind the amazing "Walter Mitty" performance. A former Baltimore Orioles pitcher who lost 21 games in 1954, the freespirited Larsen reveals how comic book "Ghoulies" told him he should experiment with a no-windup pitching delivery just prior to the '56 World Series. Knocked out in Game Two, the man known as Gooney Bird to his teammates regrouped to record a miracle win that propelled the Casey Stengel-led Yankees to the world championship over the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers.