Of those 3 wins Don had for the Orioles in 1954, 2 of them were against the Yankees. Go figure! Don joked once that those 2 wins got the NYY's attention and played a role in their trading for him.

Speaking of that trade it was a massive deal in terms of players involved:

Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Willy Miranda, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos and Gene Woodling to the Baltimore Orioles. NY received Billy Hunter, Don Larsen and Bob Turley. The New York Yankees, a month later, sent Bill Miller, Kal Segrist, Don Leppert and Theodore Del Guercio to the Baltimore Orioles to complete the trade with the Os sending Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley and Dick Kryhoski to the New York Yankees

In reality, it was basically Triandos going to Baltimore for Turley and Larsen. Triandos hit 142 HR for the Orioles.

Larsen was far better than many pitchers. Overall I'd consider him to be about average - i.e. mediocre. He did manage to stay in MLB for 10+ years, a feat not all that many players are able to achieve. As to his perfect game, there is  certain amount of luck involved. While some great pitchers have perfect games or perhaps multiple no-hitters (e.g. Nolan Ryan), some no-no's and even perfect games have been tossed by hurlers who were marginal at best, even quite inferior to Larsen.

I have always remembered seeing that incredible 3-21 record on Larsen's baseball card for the first time back in '61. I also recall a wise pundit opining that anyone who is good enough to lose 20 games in a season isn't all that bad - implying that to get that many opportunities involves being quite a bit better than the many hurlers who don't stay in the show long enough to even contemplate acquiring a 20 loss season. Another baseball card memory was seeing Hal Griggs who had accumulated something like an 8-26 lifetime W-L record at one point.    

Anyone remember Don Larson starting out with The St. Louis Browns?  I followed them because my cousin was a Browns' farmhand in the late 1940s and beginning of the '50s.  Larson was 7-12 in his first full season with The Browns.  And then he had the bad luck year in their first year in Baltimore (54), where the batters, and especially the fielders didn't support him, and he had a dismal won/lost record of 3-21.  A pitcher seemingly that bad couldn't pitch a perfect game under pressure.  It shows you how much a pitching record depends upon the skill of the fielders behind him.

I think I remember QB Parilli with the Boston or New England Patriots in the early 60's, as a 35+ year old back-up who could still play well.

Imagine how many K's there'd be today if umpires used the larger 50's/60's strike zone! As it was, only HR sluggers - and only some of them - were "permitted" to whiff 100 x or more per year. Today, some part-time guys reach that amount - i.e. 100+ K's, 15-18 HR's, and a .217 batting average.

Poor Dale Mitchell, rung up by the blue's excitement. Was it Babe Parilli?  

Joe--Tower  was on noth side Sunset--on the curve going into West Hollywood.Not sure where  Spagos was.

Every where --the  circus.