The1956 World Series was thechampionship series ofMajor League Baseball's (MLB)1956 season. The 53rd edition of the World Series, it was abest-of-seven playoff that matched theAmerican League (AL) championNew York Yankees against theNational League (NL) champion and defending World Series championBrooklyn Dodgers. A rematch of the1955 series, it was also the finalSubway Series in the Fall Classic until 44 years later in2000, as the Dodgers and theNew York Giants moved toCalifornia following the1957 season.

The Yankees won the series in seven games, capturing their 17th championship. Brooklyn won Games 1 and 2, but New York pitchers threw five consecutive complete games (Games 3–7) to cap off the comeback. The highlight wasDon Larsen's perfect game in Game 5, during which he struck out seven batters. Despite his shaky start in Game 2, in which he allowed four unearned runs off one hit, Larsen was named theSeries MVP for his perfect game. The Dodgers scored 19 runs in the first two games, but only six in the remaining five games, with just one in the final three games.

This was the last World Series to date not to have scheduled off days (although Game 2 was postponed a day due to rain).

As of March 2020, four original television broadcasts from this series (Game 2 partial, Games 3 and 5 complete, Game 7 partial) had been released on DVD.^[1]

ALNew York Yankees (4) vs. NLBrooklyn Dodgers (3)

†: postponed from October 4 due to rain

Three batters into the game, the Yankees led 2–0 on aMickey Mantle home run. Brooklyn struck back with aJackie Robinson homer in the second inning and a three-runGil Hodges shot in the third, then won behindSal Maglie's complete game.

Neither starting pitcher survived the second inning,Don Newcombe giving up aYogi Berra grand slam, andDon Larsen giving up four unearned runs. Little-known pitcherDon Bessent worked the final seven innings for the win.

Game 2 set a number of peculiar records in World Series history, which are either matched or comparable with similar World Series records and performances, in limited instances:

• Game 2 is the first of three World Series games in history in which a grand slam-hitting team failed to win the game. The1988Oakland Athletics would produce a grand slam inGame 1, lose that game, and furthermore lose that series. The2021Atlanta Braves benefited from a first-inning grand slam inGame 5 but lost the game; the Braves recovered to clinch the series in six games.
• The number of Yankee runs put up in the game, eight, is the largest number of runs accumulated in a World Series game, by a team which lost the game, yet went on to win the series. This record is shared in common only withGame 3 of1947, also a Yankee/Dodgers series.
• The combined run count of both teams in the game (21) was the most since Game 2 of the1936 Series, in which the Yankees and Giants combined for 22. Both were not eclipsed untilGame 4 of the 1993 Series.

Whitey Ford pitched a complete game, scattering eight hits, and got the support he needed from anEnos Slaughter three-run homer in the sixth that gave the Yankees a 4–2 lead; they never trailed in the game afterwards.

Hank Bauer's two-run homer in the seventh offDon Drysdale, pitching in relief, put the game away for the Yankees, who got a complete-game six-hitter fromTom Sturdivant. Mantle hit a home run offEd Roebuck in the previous inning.

In Game 5,Don Larsen, displaying an unusual "no-windup" style and "working the curveball beautifully",^[9] pitched the first postseasonperfect game (a mark that would be matched in the2007 Japan Series Game 5, in an era of globalisation of baseball by theWorld Baseball Softball Confederation), and the only World Seriesno-hitter until 2022. While striking out seven Dodgers, Larsen had only one at-bat reach a three-ball count (againstPee Wee Reese, in the first inning).

Of several close moments, the best remembered isGil Hodges' fifth-inning line drive toward Yankee Stadium's famed "Death Valley" in left-center, snared by center fielderMickey Mantle with a spectacular running catch. In addition to that, Yankees fielders had to record three more lineouts, and shortstopGil McDougald had to make a play on a ball that caromed off third basemanAndy Carey’s glove.

Brooklyn'sSal Maglie gave up only two runs on five hits and was perfect himself until a fourth-inning home run by Mantle broke the scoreless tie. The Yankees added an insurance run in the sixth asHank Bauer's single scored Carey, who had opened the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second by Larsen.

The final out of the game came on a called third strike againstDale Mitchell and generated one of the most iconic images in sports history, when catcherYogi Berra leaped into Larsen's arms.

When a reporter asked Yankees managerCasey Stengel afterward if this was the best game Larsen had ever pitched, Stengel diplomatically answered, "So far!" For Larsen, it was an especially satisfying performance, as he had acquired perhaps a better reputation as a night owl than as a pitcher. Stengel once said of Larsen, "The only thing he fears is sleep!" Larsen's perfect game was also the last game that umpireBabe Pinelli called behind the plate.^[10]

Sports cartoonistWillard Mullin drew an illustration of a happy Larsen painting a canvas titledThe Master Piece, observed by a group of fawning art critics and Mullin's classic "Brooklyn Bum". Referencing the old saw "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like", the disgusted-looking Bum came up with a variation: "It may be art...but I don't like it!"^[11]

Brooklyn starterSal Maglie appeared on the game showWhat's My Line? the night before the game, with former YankeePhil Rizzuto as one of the panel members.^[12][13]

In a 10-inning scoreless pitching duel with both starters going all the way,Jackie Robinson's walk-off single to left in the bottom of the 10th won the game forClem Labine and kept the Dodgers' championship hopes alive. Tough-luck loserBob Turley gave up a 10th-inning walk toJim Gilliam, a sacrifice bunt byPee Wee Reese and intentional pass toDuke Snider before the decisive hit. Game 6 is one of only three games in World Series history to be scoreless through nine innings, the others beingGame 2 in 1913 andGame 7 in 1991.

Yogi Berra's two homers led New York to an unexpectedly easy 9–0 title-clinching victory. Yankee pitcherJohnny Kucks struck outJackie Robinson to end the Series. It would be Robinson's final at-bat, as he retired at the season's end.

After belting the Yankee pitching staff for 19 runs and 21 hits in the first two games, the Dodger bats went silent in the next five games, scoring only six runs on 21 hits, batting only .142 (21–for–148). New York outscored Brooklyn 22–6 in Games 3–7, the Yankees winning their 17th World Series.

1956 World Series(4–3):New York Yankees (A.L.) overBrooklyn Dodgers (N.L.)

NBC televised the Series, with announcersMel Allen (for the Yankees) andVin Scully (for the Dodgers). In 2006, it was announced that a nearly-completekinescope recording of the Game 5 telecast (featuring Larsen's perfect game) had been discovered by a collector. That kinescope recording aired during theMLB Network's inaugural night on the air on January 1, 2009, supplemented with interviews of both Larsen and Yogi Berra byBob Costas.^[15] The first inning of the telecast is still considered lost and was not aired by the MLB Network or included in a subsequentDVD release of the game.

TheMutual network aired the Series on radio, withBob Wolff andBob Neal announcing. This was the final World Series broadcast for Mutual, which had covered the event since1935; NBC'sradio network would gain exclusive national rights to baseball the following season.

• 1956 Japan Series
• 1956 Global World Series

• Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990).The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 259–264.ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
• Reichler, Joseph (1982).The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2164.ISBN 0-02-579010-2.

• 1956 World Series atWorldSeries.com viaMLB.com
• 1956 World Series atBaseball Almanac
• 1956 World Series atBaseball-Reference.com
• The 1956 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) atRetrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1956 atThe Sporting News. Archived fromthe original in May 2006.
• Kodak Presents – Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: Don Larson's Perfect GameArchived April 4, 2005, at theWayback Machine
• The Deadball Era Audio – Jackie Robinson drives in the winning run in Game 6
• The Deadball Era Audio – Final Out of Don Larson's Perfect Game

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• Brooklyn Dodgers postseason
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