The shaggy-haired Arroyo took a spiritual approach to missing the no-no, sort of a Zen, glass-half-full angle: "A no-hitter in this type of environment is nearly impossible. A win for the ball club is the pinnacle - nirvana."
Back to Bailey: He'll make history the moment he toes the rubber. The Giants' Matt Cain threw a perfect game during the regular season, and according to STATS LLC, it will be the first time ever that pitchers with no-hitters during the same season will face each other's teams in a playoff series.
The shirt off his back
Speaking of history, New York Yankees great Don Larsen was back in the news on Monday, 56 years to the day after his perfect game in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers - arguably, baseball's greatest pitching feat.
Larsen appeared in Little Falls, N.J., at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State University (how great is that?) with the museum's namesake - and his catcher on that fateful day - at his side.
"I didn't know whether or not I was going to pitch," the 82-year-old Larsen recalled. "I came to the stadium early . . . I got to my locker and saw a ball in my shoe."
That was how Larsen knew manager Casey Stengel wanted him to start Game 5 with the Series tied.
Monday's occasion was a news conference. Larsen is auctioning off the uniform he wore in the 2-0 victory.
Larsen had been keeping the jersey in a closet in Idaho. With the prices for memorabilia, he saw a way to help his grandchildren with college, he said.
As for Berra, 87, he said that he never dreamed that such stuff would become so valuable.
"If I knew then what I know now," he said, "I would have saved all my uniforms instead of giving them back."
Quotable
Terry Francona, who signed a four-year contract on Monday to manage the Cleveland Indians: "I don't want to be a rental manager. . . . I want to stick around. I didn't come here to go to pasture."
Detroit manager Jim Leyland, trying to defuse Oakland A's anger over Tigers reliever Al Alburquerque kissing Yoenis Cespedes' ninth-inning comebacker before throwing to first on Sunday: "Everybody always says I'm from the old school, so I'd have probably hugged it first. [But] I don't think it was the right thing to do."
Contact Michael Harrington at mharrington@phillynews.com.
This article contains information from the AP.
