TOWN OF BURLINGTON - From the window of her family room, Janet Torhorst can look out across Browns Lake and catch a glimpse of the one-time resort where the New York Yankees stayed during the World Series of 1957 and 1958.

It was during the 1957 Series that Janet's late husband, Pat Torhorst Sr., packed up a couple of his young sons and drove to the resort to meet a young Yankee he had met in New York on a business trip.

That player was pitcher Donald James Larsen, who had already written himself into the history books by pitching a perfect game in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

"So then when the Yankees came to the Browns Lake Resort, well my husband took his two boys right out there and said 'Don, you know me,' " Janet said. "And then he invited him to come to our house."

Tagging along for the visit in '57 was Darrell Johnson, a catcher for the Yankees that season and later a manager in the American League for Boston, Seattle and Texas.

From that initial visit to Burlington 50 years ago, a lasting friendship developed between the Torhorst family, Larsen and the woman he married in December 1957, Corrine Bruess.

The friendship has centered around annual hunting and fishing trips, the most recent of which occurred in late August when Larsen, now 78, came to Wisconsin to spend time with members of the Torhorst clan, including Pat Torhorst Jr., a Racine County Circuit Court judge.

"Don loves to fish and so did my husband, and Don loves to hunt and so did my husband, so they became really good friends," said Janet, who at 91 remains engaging and active, splitting her time between her Browns Lake and Florida homes.

"He came here single, and the following year he got married to Corrine, and Corrine and I, fortunately, liked each other, and she stayed a lot of times with us when Don was on the road," Janet said. "Of course, when I think of Don, I just think of him as a friend."

Pat Torhorst Sr., who owned and operated the Quality Carriers trucking firm from 1938 until 1971, died in the early 1990s.

The Torhorsts had long owned a cottage on their Browns Lake property, even before building a home and moving permanently to the lake after Pat Sr. retired.

"So when Don came to town, he loved to go fishing here," Janet said.

Larsen was a pitcher in the major leagues for 14 seasons. After leaving baseball, he worked for a San Jose paper company for 24 years. When he retired from his second career, he and Corrine moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, overlooking Hayden Lake and 100 miles from the Canadian border.

Although he is best known for pitching a perfect game in the '56 World Series, Larsen won games in both World Series against the Braves in 1957 and 1958.

Larsen's won-lost record was 81-91 in a career that lasted from 1953-67. In addition to the Yankees, Larsen also played for the St. Louis Browns, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Athletics, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Houston Colt .45s and Houston Astros, and finished his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1967.

A good hitting pitcher, Larsen had a lifetime batting average of .242 with 14 homers and was used as a pinch-hitter 66 times in his major league career.

Janet Torhorst said that during one of the Yankees' World Series stays in Burlington, Larsen was able to meet with the daughter of Ginger Beaumont, the Racine County-born baseball player who was the first batter in the history of the World Series, doing so in 1903. Burlington's Beaumont Field is named in his honor.

Other ballplayers were part of the Torhorst legacy as well. Milwaukee Braves third baseman Eddie Mathews worked during the offseason for Quality Carriers, helping to open doors for the company with clients in Chicago, New York, Louisville and other cities.

"Those old ballplayers are making more these days signing things than they did when they were playing baseball," Janet said.

The Wikipedia entry on Don Larsen contributed to this report.