Posted By:
Ted ZanidakisDave, Dave......hold it a second, you don't really know me. I am a retired Electronics
Engineer, who fully appreciates mathematical probabilities and statistics. I used this
stuff in my profession for 30 yrs. And, I can hold my own talking BB stats with anyone.
However, after having been lucky to have a couple of conversations with Don on his
famous game, I am just trying to place a human face on this event. The 2nd game of
the 1956 WS, he was wild and the Dodgers blasted him for 6 runs in the 2nd inning.
He said that he went to bed early the nite before. So, then the nite before game #5
he ate late , had a few beers, and got to bed about midnite. But, more importantly,
he seriously took Casy Stengel's advice (given after his 2nd game failure).
Look Dave....nowadays in reg. season play, there is a higher probability of No-Hitter's,
just in the way the game is played. Consider the Yankees, it took almost 40 years till
another Yankee pitched a No-Hitter (or Perfect Game). In the 1990's Righetti, Abbott,
Gooden, Wells, and Cone achieved this feat.....of course that was "the Kiss of Death"
for these five pitchers, as Steinbrenner "rewarded" them by trading them away.
I say it's easier, nowadays, because thes hitters are not patient, like the "old gang",
who would work the count and made the pitcher really work at it. Ted Williams, and
currently Derek Jeter are very good examples of patience at bat.
Don Larsen said it best....the Dodgers made it easier for me....I only threw 97 pitches.
That translates to 3.6 pitches per batter.....it doesn't get much better than that.
T-Rex TED