BY JOHN MITCHENER
Monday in October is a school day. The year can be 1956 or 2016, but it is a school day.
I attended Edenton High School at 600 Woodard St. my sophomore year. Thinking about Aces football on Hicks Field. Black and white television was still in its infancy.
Lunch was finished. Fifth period English class with Gloria McCollum, a graduate of Duke, had begun. Sometimes we were frisky in her class, but not today. Must have been a good lunch.
It could not have been more than 10 minutes later when an unexpected knock on the door occurred. Principal Gerald James said that football players were permitted to go to the gym. Football Coach Bill Billings would be waiting for us.
Usually when you were “invited” to the coach’s office you were in trouble. So why would Coach want to see us two hours before football practice?
A black and white television was on. It was Game 5 of the World Series. First time I knew Bill Billings cared about baseball. His assistant Tunney Brooks, formerly a catcher and baseball team captain at Wake Forest, loved the game. But Brooks was nowhere to be seen.
We were out of English class to watch a baseball game! Are you kidding me?
Something serious was happening at Yankee Stadium. This was Game Five between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Series tied at two games each. NBC televised the game. Mel Allen called the game for the Yankees and Vince Scully for the Dodgers.
We knuckleheads sat down, watched and listened. I knew nearly nothing about baseball. I played outfield. My hand-eye coordination was inadequate for hitting fast balls and curves. Track was becoming my spring sport. The mile run my event.
Monday October 8, 1956, was Game Five of the 1956 Series. Series tied at Yankee Stadium. Yankees scored one run in the fourth and another in the sixth to win 2-0. Five hits and no errors. One hit a Mickey Mantle home run. Yanks lost sixth game but won the seventh to take the series 4-3.
Probably six of us crammed into coach’s small office. We watched listened and said little. The idea of only facing 27 batters in 9 innings and winning without giving up a hit or a run was slowly happening before our eyes. Don Larsen was pitching the game of his life. Yogi Berra was his catcher. Dodger batters were disappointed at home plane.
A most unlikely thing was occurring. Yes, a teachable moment too and….oh, so much more.
You could see the tension in the grandstand as the world was becoming aware of what might happen. You could feel it through the television screen. A perfect game…..? And in the World Series!
It happened with only 97 pitches.
In 1998 Don Larsen would say, “I had great control. I never had that kind of control in my life.”
It was one of only 23 perfect games in the history of major league baseball. There would not be another perfect game in post-season play until 2010.
Part of the beauty of a small school is that teachers and administrators know each other and the students. So many little things had to happen just right for teachers and administrators to cooperate, so student athletes could receive a unique benefit this particular Monday.
This event at Edenton High never made the papers. But it made my day.
One event that did hit the papers happened on November 30, 1956 when Aces football defeated Mebane in Burlington, NC for the state 1-A football title. Score 45-6 according to the 1957 Edentonian Yearbook.
Both events were significant to my education in the 1950s. May they be remembered with appreciation during October 2021.
John Mitchener is an Edenton native who graduated from Edenton High School in 1959. He first wrote this column on June 4, 2017.