By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

I was negative three years old when Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, so it’s not like it’s one of my greatest sports memories. But 63 years after the fact — the anniversary was Tuesday — it’s still pretty darned significant.

The New York Yankees won Game 5 of the 1956 World Series 2-0 over Brooklyn and the next day, Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News wrote the famous line “The imperfect man pitched a perfect game yesterday.” Larsen was never a great pitcher — his career record was 81-91 and pitched for eight different teams during his 15-year career — and was described as “an affable, nerveless man who laughs his way through life, (who) doesn’t know how to worry.” Good thing, because there was plenty to worry about.

Larsen had been knocked out in the second inning of Game 2 only three days earlier, so it wasn’t like anyone saw this one coming.

His perfect game was the first in 34 years and there have only been 20 in the history of major league baseball. The closest anyone has come to matching Larsen (if you can call this close) is Roy Halladay, who pitched a no-hitter in 2010 in the National League Division Series. That’s not a perfect game and that’s not the World Series

But if you ever wanted to know how baseball has changed in those 63 years, consider:

** To start with, Larsen pitched a complete game. You know how many complete games have been pitched in the World Series this century? Five (and none since 2015). Don’t look for another any time soon.

** There were 64,519 fans at Yankee Stadium. That’s about 10,000 more seats than any park in MLB these days.

** The time of the game was 2:06. That’ll get you about five innings these days.

Larsen is still alive at age 90 and I’m proud to say I have his autograph on a copy of a picture of him throwing a pitch with the Yankee Stadium scoreboard full of zeros in the background.

His perfection lives on today.

By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

When Major League Baseball adopted the current wild card format of one-game-for-the-marbles, I hated it. Thought it was the worst idea they had come up with since Disco Demolition Night. Mainly because it seemed counter-intuitive to what the baseball schedule is all about, which is built around a series of games.

It also didn’t help that in the first year it was adopted (2012), my favorite team (Atlanta) got one-and-outed by the St. Louis Cardinals. (It was also the last game for Chipper Jones and there was a horrible infield fly call, but I digress.)

Now, I love it. A brilliant idea.

There’s no easing into the baseball postseason. Right out of the chute, it’s the equivalent of a Game 7. And then there’s another one the next night. Two teams play 162 games to get into the playoffs and then are done after game 163.

Don’t like it? Then win your division. It also brings lots of interesting strategies into play, especially if you are fighting to win the division and then get stuck in the wild card game without adequate pitching.

The Washington Nationals have two great pitchers and used BOTH of them Tuesday night against Milwaukee. They weren’t going down with any bullets left in the chamber.

In 2014, the underdog Kansas City Royals won a memorable Wild Card Game against Oakland and used that momentum to make it all the way to the World Series against San Francisco., They won it the next year. Do they do that without winning the Wild Card game the previous year? Maybe not.

It’s baseball and anything can happen in a one-game situation. Doesn’t matter who is pitching or where the game is played — there’s an element of luck that’s involved in the Wild Card Game that you don’t get at any other point in the season.

Tonight, it will be Tampa Bay vs. Oakland. Not exactly the marquee matchup that some would think you need. But the season will end for one of them tonight and that’s all the intrigue that you need.