Milt Pappas
Pappas, who also pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves, died of natural causes last month at his home in the South suburb of Beecher.
While pitching for the ’72 Cubs, Pappas no-hit the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field on Sept. 2, 1972, but lost his perfect game by walking the 27th batter. I interviewed him about a year ago and he was still upset with umpire Bruce Froemming for not giving him calls on the final batter to give him the perfecto. Pappas told me that people still came up to him to talk about that game.
“I’m still being recognized and still going out and signing autographs, and I’m wondering to myself on numerous occasions, ‘If I would have done the perfect game, would I be getting this kind of adulation?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have had the 40 years of ‘Man, you got screwed’ and ‘Who’s that umpire that called that?’”
