Don Larsen enjoyed being back in the limelight again.
He didn’t do any pitching, but Roy Halladay’s no-hitter Wednesday for the Phillies caused baseball fans everywhere to think back to 1956, when Larsen pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.
Larsen’s perfect game and Halladay’s gem against Cincinnati are the only no-hitters in the MLB postseason history.
“Things happen good or bad, and that was a plus for him (Halladay), that’s for sure,” Larsen said by phone Thursday from his home in Idaho. “Everybody is entitled to a day. I’ll take good days anytime. If you keep working, something is going to happen sooner or later and hopefully for the good.”
Larsen, 81, said he didn’t watch the Phillies-Reds game, and said he hadn’t thought much about his feelings if another pitcher threw a no-hitter in the postseason.
“I really didn’t care when it happened or if it happened at all,” Larsen said. “But it has been fun being thought of again.”
Larsen said he doesn’t attend baseball games anymore and is involved with baseball only when he attends player reunions.
The picture of Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz jumping into Halladay’s arms was reminiscent of the famous picture that marked Larsen’s perfect game. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra did the same to Larsen.
The first telephone call Larsen received Wednesday came from Bo Mitchell of Denver. Mitchell’s father, Dale Mitchell, was the last Dodgers hitter to face Larsen in the perfect game. In the folklore that has followed, some accounts claim the pitch was outside.
“He took a half swing,” Larsen said of the third strike. “It would be a strike today or a thousand times in a row.”
The year before his perfect game, Larsen pitched for the Triple-A Denver Bears, then a farm team of the Yankees. He also played in the Single-A Western League and was involved in games in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
Larsen said he didn’t know that Halladay grew up in Arvada, a Denver suburb. For that matter, Larsen didn’t know Arvada was near Denver during his year with the Bears.
