Don Larsen

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 4 in · 215 lb

BornAugust 7, 1929 · Michigan City, IN, USA

MLB debutApril 18, 1953

Final gameJuly 7, 1967

Seasons14 (1953–1967)

St. Louis Browns 1953; Baltimore Orioles 1954; New York Yankees 1955–1959; Kansas City Athletics 1960; Chicago White Sox 1961; Kansas City Athletics 1961; San Francisco Giants 1962–1963; Houston Colt .45's 1964; San Francisco Giants 1964; Baltimore Orioles 1965; Houston Astros 1965; Chicago Cubs 1967

Percentile snapshot

1956 season — qualified pitchers

58.5

7.5

22.6

96.2

49.1

11.3

SHO

18.9

133

100

92.5

20.8

107

41.5

62.3

179.7

ERA

3.26

75.5

WHIP

1.275

58.5

K/9

5.36

73.6

FIP

4.41

5.7

FIP-

111.5

5.7

ERA+

121.5

73.6

sWAR

3.7

of 54 qualified 1956 pitchers (min 154 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

99.2

34.7

sWAR

19.6

93.4

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1953	50	85	81	11	23	3	1	3	10	4	14	0	.284	.318	.457	.774	101.3	106.1	.349	2.4
1954	44	95	88	6	22	5	3	1	4	5	15	0	.250	.290	.409	.699	86.4	92.2	.319	1.1
1955	21	45	41	4	6	1	0	2	7	4	13	0	.146	.222	.317	.539	41.6	46.7	.253	2.0
1956	45	86	79	10	19	5	0	2	12	6	17	0	.241	.294	.380	.674	79.6	81.8	.310	3.7
1957	31	63	56	6	14	5	0	0	5	6	11	1	.250	.317	.339	.657	84.0	83.2	.308	1.7
1958	28	57	49	9	15	1	0	4	13	5	9	2	.306	.364	.571	.935	158.9	160.0	.408	2.7
1959	29	56	47	8	12	2	0	0	8	7	15	0	.255	.345	.298	.643	88.5	82.8	.309	0.7
1960	23	29	29	3	6	1	0	0	3	0	11	0	.207	.207	.241	.448	6.8	19.7	.203	-0.5
1961	43	48	45	4	14	0	0	2	8	1	10	0	.311	.326	.444	.771	102.7	104.2	.344	1.2
1962	52	26	25	3	5	0	1	0	1	0	7	0	.200	.200	.280	.480	20.5	28.9	.214	0.4
1963	46	13	11	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.182	.250	.182	.432	27.6	28.0	.215	0.8
1964	37	37	32	0	3	1	0	0	0	4	10	0	.094	.194	.125	.319	-0.6	-4.4	.169	2.4
1965	28	13	13	0	3	1	0	0	1	0	5	0	.231	.231	.308	.538	44.2	51.7	.242	1.1
1967	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1953	38	22	7	12	2	7	2	201	89	64	96	11	192.7	4.16	1.375	4.48	3.37	83.6	97.0	2.4
1954	29	28	3	21	0	12	1	213	98	89	80	18	201.7	4.37	1.498	3.57	4.08	111.5	83.8	1.1
1955	19	13	9	2	2	5	1	81	33	51	44	8	97.0	3.06	1.361	4.08	4.23	110.5	125.1	2.0
1956	38	20	11	5	1	6	1	133	65	96	107	19	179.7	3.26	1.275	5.36	4.41	111.5	121.5	3.7
1957	27	20	10	4	0	4	1	113	58	87	81	12	139.7	3.74	1.432	5.22	4.23	115.3	98.1	1.7
1958	19	19	9	6	0	5	3	100	39	52	55	4	114.3	3.07	1.329	4.33	3.41	94.8	117.1	2.7
1959	25	18	6	7	3	3	1	122	60	76	69	14	124.7	4.33	1.588	4.98	4.69	126.7	85.5	0.7
1960	22	15	1	10	0	0	0	97	50	42	43	11	83.7	5.38	1.661	4.63	4.59	115.5	73.9	-0.5
1961	33	4	8	2	2	0	0	85	41	40	66	7	89.3	4.13	1.399	6.65	3.45	86.7	96.1	1.2
1962	49	0	5	4	11	0	0	83	42	47	58	9	86.3	4.38	1.506	6.05	4.43	114.7	88.3	0.4
1963	46	0	7	7	3	0	0	46	21	30	44	8	62.0	3.05	1.226	6.39	4.21	130.0	106.2	0.8
1964	36	10	4	9	1	2	1	102	31	26	64	4	113.7	2.45	1.126	5.07	2.79	83.4	136.3	2.4
1965	28	2	1	2	1	0	0	61	19	23	41	4	59.3	2.88	1.416	6.22	3.13	90.3	120.3	1.1
1967	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	4	2	1	1	4.0	9.00	1.750	2.25	6.91	195.7	39.2	-0.2

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

480

653

596

144

RBI

138

.2416

OBP

.2913

SLG

.3708

OPS

.6621

Pitching

G (P)

412

171

SHO

1,548

SO (P)

849

BB allowed

725

347th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.779

WHIP

1.3999

K/9

4.94

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1954-07-21	BAL @ MIN Gameday	4	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	7
1957-08-14	NYY @ BOS Gameday	4	2	3	2	0	0	1	0	5
1956-04-22	BOS @ NYY Gameday	2	1	2	0	0	1	4	0	5
1958-05-13	BAL @ NYY Gameday	2	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	5
1961-08-26	CLE @ CWS Gameday	2	1	2	0	0	1	1	0	5

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1956-09-03	BAL @ NYY Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	8	10	0
1964-08-29	HOU @ CIN Gameday	8.1	6	1	1	2	10	0
1959-05-30	NYY @ MIN Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	4	9	0
1957-09-25	BAL @ NYY Gameday	7.0	4	1	1	6	9	0
1953-09-04	DET @ BAL Gameday	9.0	11	6	6	5	8	1

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

1× World Series MVP

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.