1961 Topps #402 Don Larsen (1929-2020)

When I was a kid I had a thick World Series chronicle that had the box scores for every Series game through somewhere in the late 1970s. One of the things that fascinated me was that for Don Larsen's 1956 Perfect game the entry was a batter by batter, PITCH by PITCH. I had never seen anything like it, and really PxP accounts didn't really exist in the real world until the relatively recent big data revolution. 

1961 Topps #402 Don Larsen Pitches Perfect Game

One of the trading cards that covered World Series achievement was in the 1961 Topps Baseball Thrills subset.

Great card of Larsen's perfect game which occurred on October 8th 1956.

To begin with outside of a swatch announcing the event commemorated by the card the design is minimal. The picture here features our hero Larsen and the line score - perfect way summarize any no-hitter. In addition the remainder of the scoreboard tells us #8 is batting with a 1-2 coutn.  The 8 correctly identifies Dale Mitchell who struck out looking on a 1-2 pitch giving the Yankees a 2-0 victory in the pivotal fifth game of the 1956 series.

The series would got the distance with the Yankees winning.

Flip

1961 Topps #402 Don Larsen Pitches Perfect Game

The newsprint themed text on the card back does a good job of recapturing the Thrill of the perfect game. The author also provides some historical context: "...first pitcher to ever hurl a no-hitter in World Series competition." and "...first in 307 World Series games". I have minor quibble that description fails to mention the games final score 2-0.

1961 Nu-Cards
On the 60th anniversary of the Perfect Game we profiled the 1961 Nu-Card dedicated to the game. That column can be found here.

Baltimore Orioles
One of my favorite fun facts is that Don Larsen started the first game in Baltimore Orioles history, a 3-0 lost to the Detroit Tigers on April 13 1954.

Peanut Gallery
Some other Don Larsen Baseball Card Memorials
The Lost Collector - Various Autographed Cards and a Baseball
The Chronicles of Fuji - 1958 Topps #161 & various Autograph/Relic cards

Sources and Links
1961 Topps Baseball Thrills Index
No-Hitter Index
Game Dated Cards Index
trading card db
Baseball-ref

ANNIVERSARY: October 8 1956 - Don Larsen Throws World Series Perfect Game

October 8th marks the 60th Anniversary of Don Larsen's perfect game, which he threw in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

1961 NU-Cards Baseball Scoops #418 Larsen Hurls Perfect World Series Game

Larsen and the Yankees defeated the crosstown rival Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 that day. Offensive Heroes including Mickey Mantle who clubbed a fourth inning Home Run and Hank Bauer who plated the games other run with a single in the sixth.

The event was honored by this beautiful 1961 Basesball Scoops Card. Nice touches include a decent photo for the era and a date line specific to the game. I am also a fan of the title logo which contains the bouncing baseball iconography rather in place of the OOs in scOOps.

The pivotal game five victory gave the Yankees a 3 games to 2 advantage over the Dodgers in a Series that would eventually go the distance. The Yanks won game 7 and Larsen took home MVP honors.

Flip

 1961 NU-Cards Baseball Scoops #418 Larsen Hurls Perfect World Series Game (b-side)

Great back of the card for a game that certainly warrants the attention.  Four Paragraphs of text! Some of it is a little awkward - the 2nd Paragraph has two sentences that essentially state the same fact about 3 ball counts. Pee Wee Reese's first inning AB is mentioned both here and in the final paragraph. Regardless I still love the card.

Topps honored Larsen with a similar card in their 1961 set which can be found here.

Update (2020 01 02)
1961 Topps #402 Baseball Thrills / Don Larsen memorial

Sources and Links
Phungo No-Hitter Index
Phungo Game Dated Cards Index
Check out My Cards
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-ref

Card Show Report - 2010 05 14 Exton Mall, Exton PA

I mainly scoured cheapo bins in the 2-3 hours I spent at the Exton card Show. I was able to knock out about a dozen cards from my Phillies Want list and another dozen cards from my other want lists.

There were some minor surprises. In one of the dime bins I was perusing I found 3 Chicle cards and picked out all of them. I spent a good deal of time in a nickle bin which actually had a number of 2010 Topps Cards, and 2010 UD - including a good chunk of the Biography set. There were several Bowman Chrome cards in there as well.

My biggest surprise was finding a couple 2007 Topps XFractors in the dime bin.

The Pictures:

2010 Topps National Chicle Lou Brock
Later in the year I may have skipped the other Chicles (Zambrano, Braun). I was a bit of a Brock fan when I was a kid, and I will always at least consider any retro card of his when thumbing through a budget bin.

The Phils


I am pretty sure all of these came from my Phils vendor. I am good for finding a bunch of Phils cards in his bin at every show, I picked up these and a bunch of 2010 Topps Phils Commons all for $5. Someday I will get around to cataloging my haves and wants for the Phils Carlton collection, but I haven't as of today.

Set Building
These cards are all from different sets I am building:

2007 Bowman Heritage
2007 UD Masterpieces
2008 UD Spectrum
2008 Topps All-Star Rookies


The Retro
I am a sucker for this kind of stuff. The Brooksie is from the 2006 Topps Rookie of the Week promotion. I picked up maybe a dozen of these. The Action Packed card is of Roberto Clemente.

Shiny
As always there were lots of Bowman Chrome in the nickel box, not as many Topps, but I did find the above Ibanez card in there.


Other Nickles



There is one woman who often has a nickel box at the show - this week she had a lot of 2010 Topps commons (no phils) and 2010 UD cards including gobs of the Biography cards. She also had the above Soriano card - which was homaged in the 2010 Topps Yo Momma Set. Who needs the reprint when you can get the original for a nickle??

I am not a football guy nor a Giants fan, but I could not let this 08 Masterpieces Football cards sit in the nickle bin.

All told I went through $28.50 at the show in about 3 hours. $5 in Phils card, $7 in the nickle bin, $6 in a dime box, $1.50 on a Grab Bag, and $5 on a six pack off oddball packs to open over at A Pack To Be Named Later.

The House That Ruth Built - Perfect Games

My first visit to "the Stadium" was on June 30 1998, The Phillies were playing the Yankees that night. 1998 was the second year of interleague play and this was the Phillies first trip to Yankee Stadium since the 1950 World Series.

Things didn’t go that well for the Phils, Yankee starter David Cone was on his game and the Phils were outmanned. Cone was perfect until 2 outs into the fifth and was an out away from pitching a shutout when Jon Zuber hit a 2 run homer, which was not nearly enough as the Bronx Bombers scored 9 runs including a Homer by Darryl Strawberry. The Yankees won 9-2.

A year later Cone did pitch a perfect game at Yankee Stadium. The Stadium was the site of two other Perfect games, one by David Wells and one by Don Larsen, the only Perfect Game in World Series History.