The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway. Back in the day, we’d be well into the World Series by now. I’m grateful to my friend Dr. John Ed Mathison for reminding us through his October 6 blog that yesterday was the 65th anniversary of Don Larsen’s perfect game, pitched in game 5 against the Dodgers, October 8, 1956.

I remember it well. I was only 9 years old at the time, and the game was played in the afternoon while I was in school. My dad was a pitcher in the New York Giants minor league system, and we were always National League fans. I asked my dad, “Did the Dodgers win?” And he replied, “No, but something wonderful happened.”

The next day, the World Series was the headline story in the newspaper (as it usually was), but there was also a large, above-the-fold picture of Don Larsen. I cut that picture out and kept it for many years. Thanks to online archives, it lives:

Don Larsen was not a great pitcher. His career was mediocre at best. In game 2 of the Series, Larsen lasted only two innings, giving up six runs. He didn’t expect to start game 5, but as John Ed tells it:

When he got to the stadium and went to his locker, he saw a baseball in one of his shoes. Frank Crosetti was the third-base coach. He would customarily inform who the starting pitcher could be by putting a baseball in the shoe.

Larsen went out and pitched the only perfect game in a World Series – one perfect game in a World Series from 1903 until now.

When the 1957 season started, we had a television, and I’ll never forget Dizzy Dean, former pitcher and legendary color man of the “Game of the Week,” announcing: “We have a surprise for you today, sports fans. Don Larsen is starting the game for the Yankees!” I’ll also never forget that the first pitch went off the left field wall for a double, the next pitch went off the right field wall for another double, and I don’t think Larsen made it through the first inning.

What’s the lesson? As John Ed tells it:

Miracles happen – even in baseball. They also happen in the game of life. Your past doesn’t have to determine what’s going to happen in the future. Jesus picked some really shady characters to be his close-knit group of advisors. He related to a prostitute and gave her a new chance at life. (John 8) He talked to a woman who had been married multiple times and then sent her back to tell the good news. (John 4) He transformed a tax collector into a benevolent Christian follower. (Luke 19) He made a buffet meal out of a little boy’s basket of fish and bread. (Mark 6) Miracles happen! – Dr. John Ed Mathison (links to scripture added by me)

And I can’t improve on John Ed’s close:

How big is the miracle that God wants to do in your life? And the miracle that God has in store for you might be far greater than the miracle that happened to Don Larsen on October 8, 1956!

Did you see the baseball in your shoe this morning?