My Darling Clem Labine

Clem Labine, winner of two of the biggest shutouts in Brooklyn Dodger history, both of which were squandered in the “wait ‘til next year Dodger mystique,” has died following brain surgery at the age of 80. Labine threw a shutout in game 2 of the 1951 NL playoff before the Giants won the pennant, the Giants won the pennant, the Giants won the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard ‘Round the World. The day after Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history to get the Yankees within a game of the 1956 world championship, Labine gave the Dodgers life with a 10-inning, 1-0 shutout. Then they lost game 7. Again. Labine was also there for the lone championship in Flatbush, winning 10 and saving 11 in relief, then winning 1 game and saving another in the 1955 World Series.