The 1956 major league baseball season began on April 17, 1956. The regular season ended on September 30, with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. In a rematch of the previous season, the postseason began with Game 1 of the 53rd World Series on October 3 and ended with Game 7 on October 10. The series is notable for Yankees pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5. In the seventh iteration of this Subway Series World Series matchup (and a rematch of the previous year), the Yankees defeated the Dodgers, four games to three, capturing their 17th championship in franchise history, since their previous in . This would be the final Subway Series matchup between the two teams, as the next World Series between the two in would see a relocated Dodgers franchise in Los Angeles, California. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Brooklyn Dodgers from the season.
The 23rd Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 10 at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., home of the Washington Senators. The National League won, 7âÂÂ3.
The 1956 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the season (except for ) and would be used until in the American League and in the National League.
Opening Day took place on April 17, featuring all sixteen teams, the first time since . The final day of the regular season was on September 30, which also saw all sixteen teams play, continuing the trend from the previous season. This was the first time since that all sixteen teams played their first and last games on the same days. The World Series took place between October 3 and October 10.
The 1956 season saw the following rule changes:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
7 tie games (2 in AL, 5 in NL), which are not factored into winning percentage or games behind (and were often replayed again) occurred throughout the season.
The Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Washington Senators had one tie game each.
The Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates had three tie games each. The St. Louis Cardinals had two tie games. The Cincinnati Redlegs and Milwaukee Braves had one tie game each.
The postseason began on October 3 and ended on October 10 with the New York Yankees defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series in seven games.
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<sup>1</sup> American League Triple Crown batting winner
The Brooklyn Dodgers began playing several home games in Jersey City, New Jersey, playing seven games on April 19, May 16, June 25, July 25, 31, August 7 and 15.
CBS aired the Saturday Game of the Week for the second consecutive year. The All-Star Game and World Series aired on NBC.