#70 Milt Pappas
Here is a card of Milt Pappas that I got from the Topps Million Card Giveaway. I sent this card to Milt on January 15 and I had it back ten days later.
When I unlocked or traded for this card, I had no idea that Milt had a no-hitter under his belt. I had seen the story about his no-no on MLB Network a few times before, but I didn't put two and two together. For those of you who haven't heard about it, Milt had a perfect game going with the Cubs on September 2nd of 1972. After retiring twenty-six straight batters, Milt had a 2-2 count on Larry Stahl. The next two pitches were close to the zone, but they were both called balls by home plate umpire, Bruce Froemming. He lost the perfect game with two outs in the ninth, but he still got the no hitter. By all accounts, it seems that Milt is still a little upset that he didn't get the perfect game.
Milt had long career in the Majors as he spent time with the Orioles, Reds, Braves, and Cubs. He was never a 20 game winner, but he did reach 17 wins twice and he hit double digit wins in twelve of his seventeen seasons. He made two All Star games as an Oriole and he finished his career with a 209-164 record.
Milt has an interesting signature that is a little hard to make out. I can see an "M" in there and that is about it.
Milt's birth name is Miltiades Stergios Pappastediodis. I think I like Milt Pappas better, too.
Milt was mad at the Cubs organization for a while, too because they released him towards the end of spring training 1974 and he never had much of a chance to hook up with another team. He ended up with 99 wins in the NL and 110 in the AL. One more NL win would have made him one a only a handful of pitchers to win 100 games in each league.
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