Hey, this is Steve White, the host of this day in sports history.

Before I get to today's episode, I want to talk to you about the continuing unfolding situation here in western North Carolina as it continues to be dire for so many who lost everything.

Those who still have a home may be without power or access to clean or running water for several more weeks.

Some are trapped by washed out roads.

Communication has been severed.

Consider a donation to the western North Carolina Red Cross or another local charity that's doing work to help those affected by Hurricane Helene.

Let's bring some normalcy back to life for so many who have been disrupted.

I've put some links in the show notes if you would like a few suggestions.

Thanks.

And now today's episode.

A one of a kind, perfect day.

A play so famous it's just called the Double.

And another long losing streak was snapped.

It's October 8, and this is this day in sports history.

A brief journey around what happened in sports history on this day.

Let's start in 1956, when an average pitcher did something extraordinary.

You could call him a journeyman.

This was only his fourth year as a big leaguer, and the New York Yankees was his third team.

He played with the St.

Louis Browns, then the Baltimore Orioles, and then with the Yanks beginning in 1955.

You could call him average.

His career win loss total at this point in his career was sub 500.

He led the league in losses with 21 in 1954.

But for one day, he caught lightning in a bottle and took advantage of his good fortune.

This was game five of the 1956 World Series.

Don Larson had started game two, and he was clobbered by Los Angeles hitters in that one, giving up four unearned runs.

And he was yet tanked in the second inning in what turned out to be a 13 eight Brooklyn romp.

So here he was three days later, standing on the hill at Yankee Stadium.

Larson and Brooklyn starter Sal Magly matched each other, pitch for pitch through the first three innings.

Mickey Mantle hit a solo homer off Magley in the fourth, and the Yankees picked up another run in the 6th.

Larsen kept on rolling into the 9th.

No runs, no hits, no walks, no errors by the men behind him.

In the 9th, he enticed Carl Farillo to hit a lazy fly ball out, got Roy Campanella to ground out.

And then the 27th batter that Larsen faced was Dale Mitchell, pinch hitting for Magle.

Mitchell was a dangerous 312 career hitter with a call that day.

Here's Bob Wolf.

Dale Mitchell comes up with two out in the 9th inning.

Here comes the pitch and it's ball one.

Ball one to Dale Mitchell with two away in the 9th.

Here comes the next pitch.

A strike call.

That is one and one.

And this crowd just straining forward at every pitch.

One and one to Mitchell.

He's a left handed batter.

Here it comes.

A swing of it to strike four.

One to Dale Mitchell.

Listen to this crowd.

Two strikes.

Ball one to Mitchell with two away in the 9th.

I'll guarantee that nobody, but nobody has left this ballpark.

Larson is ready, gets the sign.

Two strikes.

Ball one.

Here comes the pitch.

Strike three.

I know her.

A perfect game for Don Larson.

Yogi Berra runs out there.

He leaps on Larson, and he's swarmed by his teammates, lucid of this crowd.

Roar.

It was the first and still only perfect game thrown in the post season.

Larson used a new no wind up delivery in this game, which baffled the Dodger hitters.

He struck out seven.

Magley, who had actually appeared on the game show what's my line?

The night before, pitched a pretty solid game.

He gave up two earned runs on five hits.

He struck out five and walked two, and he only faced 29 batters.

On this day in 1995, Edgar Martinez hit the most famous double in major league post season history, and without a doubt, in Seattle Mariners history.

It was game five of the American League divisional playoff between the New York Yankees and the Mariners.

Before I get to the game, you should know that the Mariners faced a lot of adversity.

They'd only had three winning seasons in franchise history, with 95 being one of those.

A furious comeback from 13 games back in August to tie the flailing California Angels forced a one game playoff, which Seattle won, to advance to the ALDS.

Also, you need to know that the ownership group of the Mariners wanted the city to add a 1% sales tax to pay for a new stadium.

When that was put to a vote, King county residents said no.

Seattle officials were put on notice by the owners of the team that if there was not a plan to build a new stadium by October 30, the team would be put up for sale.

So now that you know that, youll understand why this hit was so huge.

The Yankees had won the first two games of the series, and things looked pretty dark for Seattle until they came back to win games three and four to force the deciding game five in the kingdom.

Seattle had to rally again in this game, erasing a two run deficit in the 8th inning to send the game to extras.

In the 11th, the Yankees took a one run lead with Randy Velardi driving in the go ahead run.

The Yankees brought in Jack McDowell to close the game out.

Now, McDowell was usually a starter, but he did make a rare relief appearance every now and then, and he was set to face the heart of the Seattle lineup.

Joey Cora reached first on a bunt single.

Ken Griffey junior singled to right, allowing Cora to go to third, and that brought up Edgar Martinez.

Martinez had a great regular season in 95.

He was an all star.

Finished third in the mvp balloting that season after leading the American League with a 356 batting average.

And he also led the league in doubles.

Here's the Mariners Dave Niehaus with the call.

They would love a base hit into the gap, and they could win it with junior speed.

The stretch and the zero one pitch on the way to Edgar.

Martinez.

Swung on the line, down the left field line for base ten.

Here comes joy.

Here is junior to third base.

They're going to wave him in.

The throw to the plate will be late.

The Mariners are going to play for the American League championship.

I don't believe it.

It just continues.

Edgar Martinez with a double rip down the left field line, and they are going crazy at the kingdom.

The Mariners would play in the ALCS against Cleveland, losing in six games.

But Edgar Martinez's double is credited with saving baseball in Seattle.

The Mariners played in the Kingdom until June 1999 and then moved into Safeco park, which is now known as T Mobile park.

On this day in 2000, Michael Schumacher used pit strategy to win a race and then lock up another Formula One championship.

This was the second to last race in the season in Japan.

Schumacher entered the race with an eight point advantage over Amiko Hackinen.

Schumacher took the pole, but Haakkonen grabbed the advantage from the drop of the flag and led most of the early lapse.

A light rain played into this one a little bit, too.

Haakonen was out front, but with the wet track conditions, he drove a little more cautiously around the track.

He had had a retirement in the previous race, and he just couldn't afford to do that for a second race in a row and still contend for the title.

There was one more race left on the schedule, so he let off the accelerator a bit, and that allowed Schumacher to make up some ground.

With the second round of pit stops, Schumacher stayed out for an extra three laps and took advantage of the clean air and track conditions.

And when he finally pulled in for new rubber, he had picked up an additional 4 seconds on Hakkatan and used that to win his 8th race of the year and secure his third f one championship.

And we've talked about the longest losing streak in FBS football, the longest losing streak in all of college football.

Well, how about the end to the longest losing streak in FCS football?

Or as it was labeled back in 1988, one aa football.

When you think of Columbia, the first thing that jumps to your mind is not football.

You think law school or secret societies or Ivy League.

Well, on this day in 1988, the Lions football team beat Princeton 1613.

They took the lead with 513 to play in the game and then had to sweat out a last second Princeton Field goal that came up just a few yards short.

It was Columbia's first win in five years, and it snapped their 44 game losing streak.

That streak was the longest at the time and stayed that way until Prairie View's struggles in the nineties that I mentioned a few days back.

And time now for today's nothing to do with sports.

Fun fact, there's a metal band that has adopted a Ned Flanders theme.

They're called Oakley Dokali.

That's all I've got for you today.

Thanks for checking out this episode.

I hope you come back tomorrow for another edition of this day in sports history.

This has been an original thrive suite production.