Is baseball still superstitious? How World Series announcers called 'no-hitters' in 1956 vs. 2022

Baseball is steeped in superstition, from pitchers not stepping on the line as they walk from the mound to the dugout to players not acknowledging to a teammate he is throwing that rare gem: a no-hitter.

Starter Cristian Javier and three Houston Astros relievers twirled only the second no-hitter in World Series history in Wednesday’s 5-0 Game 4 win over the Phillies, following Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, a 2-0 New York Yankees win over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As Wednesday’s game unfolded, you couldn’t miss what was going on with Javier if you tuned into Fox’s broadcast. Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis made a direct reference to Javier’s potential feat no fewer than 15 times starting with the bottom of the fourth inning.

If you tuned in late to Mel Allen and Vin Scully’s call of the Larsen game for NBC back in 1956, you would not have easily known what was happening. The 66-plus years in between games show us how different broadcasting approaches have changed toward calling baseball’s perhaps most anticipated feat.

The background

You wouldn’t hear “no-hitter” come out of Allen’s mouth, or anything close to it, during a game.

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“One to nothing, New York,” he told viewers after Mickey Mantle’s two-out home run off the Dodgers’ Sal Maglie in the fourth inning. “Each pitcher had retired everybody he had faced until just now.”

Bob Wolff, calling his first World Series for Mutual radio, thought perhaps 15% of his listeners were superstitious and didn’t want them to blame him for jinxing Larsen.

“The crowd is very aware of everything that is happening here, as far as the score and other important matters are concerned,” he said in the eighth. “I’m sure you who are listening are well-informed of the drama that Larsen holds right within his pitching grasp.”

Broadcasters in a two-man Word Series team during this era worked half the game. Generally, one broadcaster would speak exclusively, while the other broadcaster wouldn’t talk unless spoken to by his partner.

“This has been a game that has been just spectacular,” Allen told viewers to start the bottom of the fifth inning. “And hearts have been jumping up into throats and mouths all the way. And here’s Vin Scully to carry on the rest of the way …”

Scully, who was 29 at the time, wasn’t about to break with his senior partner’s tradition.

Oct. 8, 1956

It wasn’t as if Allen and Scully were being completely evasive. After each half-inning, a camera would settle on a manual scoreboard at Yankee Stadium that showed all of the zeroes, including the errors for both teams and hits for the Dodgers.

Scully began to dig in more by the top of the sixth inning after Brooklyn’s Carl Furillo popped out to Yankees second baseman to Billy Martin: “Don Larsen is spinning quite a web today. He’s retired 16 men in a row.”

The hints became more prevalent.

“Two Dodgers came very close to getting base hits thus far,” he said in the eighth. “(Jackie) Robinson, in the second inning, lashed a line drive that was deflected off (third baseman) Andy Carey’s glove over to (shortstop) Gil McDougald, and Gil threw Jackie out. Gil Hodges, in the fifth inning, hit a line drive into left-center that was backhanded by Mickey Mantle. And here we are in the eighth.”

Scully noted the standing ovation for Larsen when he batted in the bottom of the eighth.

“Don was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1929 and lives now in San Diego, California,” he said. “So, I imagine there are two cities in the United States just about coming to a standstill.”

After Larsen took a strike: “I imagine when the ninth inning comes, the nation will stop still.”

After Joe Collins struck out swinging to end the eighth against Maglie: “Well, all right, let’s all take a deep breath as we go to the most dramatic ninth inning in the history of baseball.”

Yet it wasn’t until Larsen struck out pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell to end the game that Scully uttered the magic words:

“Got him! The greatest game ever pitched in baseball history by Don Larsen. A no-hitter, a perfect game in a World Series!"

Nov. 2, 2022

By contrast, Davis and Fox relayed exactly what was happening.

“And how ‘bout this? Cristian Javier, in Game 4 of the World Series, has pitched five no-hit innings,” Davis exclaimed.

Starting in the bottom of the sixth with one out, Fox began to run a line above the score in the lower-right corner of TV screen:  “NO HITTER THROUGH 5 ⅓”

Davis continued to mention the no-hit bit – with increasing zeal - as Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly mowed down the Phillies.

To start the bottom of the ninth, viewers saw a flashback to Roy Halladay’s game for the Phillies against the Reds in the 2010 Division Series, the second no-hitter in postseason history to that point.

By the time the third out was completed, even if you had just tuned in, you knew exactly what was happening as Davis made the call: “Bouncing ball to third! Picked by Bregman! Throw across in time! The Astros have a World Series no-hitter!”

In 1956, catcher Yogi Berra leaped into the arms of Larsen, a tall, awkward right-hander who had pitched poorly in his first World Series start that year but the combined no-hitter made the Astros’ celebration a little more muted.

“Little extra sweet they didn’t give up a hit,” said Davis’ partner, John Smoltz. “That’s the first time I’ve said that all night.”

“Yeah, I was all over it for you,” Davis exclaimed.

In a way, Smoltz was nodding to baseball’s past.