The World Series is baseball's biggest stage, and plenty of big performances have happened under its glare. But only one pitcher has ever been perfect in the Fall Classic, and he did it 58 years ago on October 8, 1956.

Don Larsen didn't appear destined for baseball immortality when the Baltimore Orioles traded him to New York after the 1954 season. In his first two major league seasons, he had a 10-33 won-loss record and gave up more than 4 earned runs a game on average. He looked like an afterthought in a massive 17-player trade, but Yankees GM George Weiss and manager Casey Stengel thought the 25-year-old hurler had potential and insisted he be included in the trade.

Fast forward two years, and Larsen took the mound at Yankee Stadium as the starter for Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the fourth meeting between the crosstown rivals in the Fall Classic in five seasons, and the Yankees were seeking revenge for a loss to Brooklyn in 1955. With the series even 2-2, Larsen needed a big day to keep the Yankees from heading back to Brooklyn down 3-2. His Game 2 performance hadn't provided much reason for optimism. He had given up four walks, opening the door for a 6-run second inning by the Dodgers, and was gone by the end of the second inning as Brooklyn won 13-8 to take a 2-0 series lead. The Yankees had come home to the Bronx and won two straight, and now Larsen (who was better known for his nightlife than his pitching) needed to keep the momentum going.

What followed was a masterpiece. Larsen employed an unusual no-windup style he had recently started using, and needed only 97 pitches to retire every Brooklyn batter he faced. Only one Dodger got to 3 balls in the count all day, as Larsen sat down 27 men in a row in a 2-0 New York win…the only perfect game in the World Series before, or since. Since baseball has expanded to a four-tiered postseason structure, it also retains the distinction as the only perfect game in the history of the playoffs. The Yankees went on to win the series in 7 games, with Larsen earning the series MVP award.

Larsen won another World Series with the Yankees in 1958, and pitched with various teams before retiring in 1967. At age 85, he has lived through plenty of afternoons…but none of them can quite compare to the October day in 1956 when, for a few hours under baseball's brightest spotlight, the only word to describe him was "perfect."

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