Rank (or discuss) your favorite MLB ballparks!

Nah, definitely not. Everyone supports the team their own way. If you belong to a Yankee message board, you are probably a hardcore fan. If you have nearly 5000 posts on said board, you are definitely a hardcore fan!  

Inger -- I wondered if you saw MLB Network on New Year's night where they replayed the entirety of Larsen's perfect game.  I had never seen it before -- the clips you get on youtube are only of the last inning.  It was amazing to watch -- really not even many close calls, the most famous being Mantle's nice running catch of a Gil Hodges drive to left-center.  That ball had to have been hit 440 feet, and wasn't even close to being a home run.  Mick was so fast that he made the catch on a backhand stab that a mere mortal would have had to dive for.

The only other close call came in the second inning when Jackie Robinson hit a smash to third baseman Andy Carey that ricocheted off of his glove to SS Gil McDougald, who threw out Robinson at first.  Other than that, everything was pretty routine.

What a wonderful game to watch.  For one thing, Mel Allen called the first half of the game, and a young Vin Scully called the second half.  Both worked solo.  It was a treat -- two of the best ever, definitely letting the game breathe.  No annoying anecdotes or useless information or contrived controversies.  Very adult.

Commercial breaks between innings were one minute -- mostly Gillette ads, with a Paper Mate Pen ad tossed in from time to time.  Graphics consisted of the player's name being flashed on the screen.  Odd (to our eyes) camera angles -- closeups from behind the plate and down each baseline.  Obviously no replays, no centerfield shots.   To me, that was the hardest part to get used to.

The best part -- a grand total of one mound visit for the whole game.  Yet despite the lack of sage advice and advanced strategy, Larsen threw a perfecto and Sal Maglie allowed two runs on five hits.

Seven Hall of Famers started in that game -- Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Enos Slaughter for the Yankees, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Roy Campanella for the Dodgers.  Managers Casey Stengel and Walter Alston are also in the HOF (as well as announcers Allen and Scully.)  Non-HOF but household baseball names for the era included Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Junior Gilliam, Sal Maglie, Gil McDougald, Hank Bauer and of course Don Larsen himself.

Discussing the game afterward, it was either Bob Costas or Tom Verducci who pointed out that since Larsen's perfect game, no starter in a World Series has retired more than the first nine batters.  I did not try to verify that independently, and it sounded a bit suspect to me, but that's what the man said in any event.

The way the cameras were set up made the field look really small, like the mound was about six feet from home plate.  And while Scully, who did the last half of the game, never specifically mentioned a perfect game, he did note things like 21 in a row retired.  But he wasn't about to "jinx" Larsen (whose nickname, if you recall, was "Goony Bird.")  A notorious night owl and hard drinker who is with us yet and looking at age 90 later this year.

You probably remember that Larsen threw out the first pitch to Yogi Berra at Yankee Stadium on the day in 1999 when David Cone threw his no-hitter.  Larsen claimed it was the only time he ever watched a complete game that he wasn't pitching himself.

Also, when David Wells threw the second perfect game in Yankee history in 1998, it meant that both Yanks to have done so went to the same high school -- Point Loma High in San Diego.  Crank up the Twilight Zone theme.

For the record, the game was completed in a crisp 2:06.  Which means it would have ended at 3:11 PM Eastern Time.  Plenty of time to get on with other things in your life.  Perhaps fittingly enough, Don Larsen is the only surviving participant from that game.

The only non-starter to get in the game was Dale Mitchell, who pinch-hit for Maglie in the ninth and was called out on strikes for the final out.  It was the last at bat of his very fine career -- he hit .312 and had a .368 OBP.  He struck out only 119 times in just under 4,000 career ABs.

Did you know that Mitchell has the 14th best K per AB in baseball history? Joe Sewell gets s lot of credit for avoiding the K, mostly because he only fanned 4 times in a full season with over 600 AB. He’s second all-time to Wee Willie Keeler.

I’d post the list off BR, but I’m on my mobile, and don’t want to nudge Ruthie off the desk top...but it’s all true! I swear it!!!

Not only that, but Sewell never fanned more than 20 times in a season. The year he fanned four times, he was only 26 years old. He played eight more years. In six of those years he got over 500 AB and never again fanned more than 9 times in a season. It was a different era, to be sure. Imagine that season with 4 K’s (1926) he hit one HR, but drove in 98 runs...

Geez, Kaybli. Poor raj! He comes out for a teeny bit fun and you shut the poor bloke down. Dog friendly hotels could be a right interesting bit. A bloke’s got to have somewhere to take his chick, right?...