Every baseball fan knows the name Don Larsen. He stood alone as the only pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter in the MLB playoffs since the postseason started in 1884. It wasn’t just a no-hitter…it was a perfect game…during the World Series (the 54th anniversary of his gem is tomorrow). The video of Yogi Berra leaping into Larsen’s arms is classic.

If you didn’t know who Larsen was before Wednesday…you know now. Now 81-years-old and living right outside of Spokane, Larsen’s name was hurled back into the national spotlight. He has Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay to thank for that. Halladay tossed a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in the opening game of the National League Division Series, joining Larsen in the record books.

Larsen answered phone calls all day yesterday. One of those calls came from me (I should say usbecause my sports reporter Chris Bach interviewed him with me). We asked to talk to him on camera, but Larsen wanted to protect his privacy (that’s why he retired to Idaho). I was just happy to talk to him at all. We asked him about Halladay’s no-hitter (and sharing a spot in the record books with him), his perfect game in 1956 (he has some good stories), and what he’s doing with his life now (especially since his popularity is on the rise again).

Here’s the entire uncut interview with Larsen that I posted on YouTube:

I’ve interviewed several Hall of Famers (or should be Hall of Famers) and hundreds of today’s stars, but Larsen is one of those interviews I’ll always remember. I wanted to keep him on the phone for hours to hear more of his stories from a long time ago. It’s not every day you talk to a guy who name drops Mickey Mantle. I hope you enjoyed listening to the interview as much as I enjoyed doing the interview.

I would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment below, connect with me on Facebook, get in touch with me on Twitter @lewissports, or email me at tim@timlewissports.com. I shared a link to my YouTube channel earlier, but here’s another one just in case you missed it.

Tags: baseball, history, Sports, video

This entry was posted on October 7, 2010 at 8:19 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Sports by Tim Lewis 1 Comment