Major League Baseball

LARSEN SALUTES HALLADAY

Published Oct. 8, 2010 10:22 p.m. ET

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PHILADELPHIA - Two is not a crowd in the post-season no-hitter club, says Don Larsen.

"I don't think there's really a club there," the 81-year-old Larsen said yesterday, joking as part of an interview with MLB Network. "I don't know the price of it."

But though Larsen didn't watch Roy Halladay's gem on Wednesday night, he could appreciate how rare and wondrous it was when he saw news of it on television that night.

"I would congratulate him on a nice day," said Larsen. "We work pretty hard to do something like this.

"These things come unexpected a lot of times, but they're welcome, I'll tell you that. And I'm glad I was a part of mine."

The 54th anniversary of Larsen's perfect game against the Booklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series is today. It will not, Larsen said, be much different than any other day.

"I think about it every day," he said. "No one has to remind me what happened. I was just happy to be a part of it with the New York Yankees and against Brooklyn in the World Series, everybody was watching."

Larsen and Halladay had almost identical numbers in their postseason gems. Larsen struck out seven in the Yankees' 2-0 victory, and Halladay had eight strikeouts and one walk in the Phillies' 4-0 win.

"You work hard for certain things," Larsen said. "I guess if you work hard enough good things are going to happen to you, and it did for me and Halladay."

Both Halladay and Larsen heaped praise on their catchers. Halladay said Carlos Ruiz helped him get into a rhythm early and Larsen said Hall of Famer Yogi Berra played a key role in his masterpiece.

"I couldn't have done it without Yogi," Larsen said. "He was a hell of a catcher. He deserves a lot of credit for it." - With AP

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