Matthew Taylor: Jake Arrieta isn't the only former Oriole to throw no-hitter

Call it something old, something new, with both players wearing Cubbie blue.

Milt Pappas died this week. He pitched for the Orioles before being trading away to the Cincinnati Reds in the Frank Robinson deal and ultimately tossed a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs. Last night, Jake Arrieta, whom the Orioles traded away, tossed a no-hitter for the Cubs. The opponent? The Cincinnati Reds. That, my friends, is baseball.

I can't imagine many O's fans actually resent Arrieta for throwing his second no-hitter since joining the Cubs. Instead, I saw a few "Congrats, Jake" messages on Twitter soon after he retired the final Reds batter. Arrieta's turnaround since arriving in Chicago is nothing short of amazing. When you consider the Orioles' history with former pitchers, it might also seem familiar.

Everything old is new again as, by my count, there have now been seven pitchers who have thrown no-hitters after leaving Baltimore: Don Larsen (1956), Pappas (1972), Dennis Martinez (1991), Kevin Brown (1997), David Wells (1998), Kevin Millwood (2012), and Arrieta (2015, 2016). Larsen, Martinez, and Wells each had perfect games. Millwood's post-Orioles effort was a combined no-hitter to go along with his solo no-hitter in his pre-Orioles days.

There are more pitchers who have thrown no-hitters after leaving Baltimore than there are pitchers to have thrown no-hitters for the Orioles. The O's have five no-hitters since 1954 (Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958, Steve Barber and Stu Miller together in a losing cause in 1967, Tom Phoebus in 1968, Jim Palmer in 1969, and a combined effort by Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson, and Gregg Olson in 1991).

The Orioles have never had a perfect game. In fact, the O's are one of only seven major league teams to have never been involved in a perfect game on either the winning side or the losing side. So, naturally, Larsen throws the only perfect game in World Series history two years removed from going 3-21 with a 4.37 ERA in Baltimore, Martinez pitches a perfect game ("El Presidente, El Perfecto!") for the Montreal Expos five years after being traded there in exchange for Rene Gonzalez, and Wells tosses a perfect game two years after going 11-14 with a 5.14 ERA in Baltimore. Pappas, meanwhile, came within one strike of a perfect game during his 1972 no-hitter.

If we Baltimore fans want to direct our ire at other teams that got the best efforts from former O's pitchers, we needn't worry about much anger coming back our way. Among the five Orioles pitchers who have started during the team's no-hitters, only Wilhelm played elsewhere before arriving in Baltimore. The Orioles selected Wilhelm off of waivers from the Cleveland Indians on Aug. 23, 1958, and his no-hitter came less than a month later on Sept. 20. The Orioles were his fourth team.

Baseball is a business, not a marriage. For better or worse, players sometimes save their best moments for after you've parted.

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. Follow him on Twitter: @RoarFrom34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.