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MILT
PAPPAS
PASSES:
Baseball
Player
Adopted
and
Loved
Chicago
By
Raymond
Rolak/Tell
Us
Detroit
Sports
CHICAGO
- Milt
Pappas,
former
professional
baseball
player
was
found
dead in
his
suburban
Beecher,
Illinois
house on
Tuesday
of
natural
causes.
It was
unexpected
and a
shock to
his
family.
He was
76.
Pappas
led
Detroit
Cooley
High
School
to the
Detroit
Public
School
championship
in 1957
with a
5-3
victory
over
Cody
High
School.
The game
was
played
at night
because
it was
the
grand
celebration
of the
newly
lighted
Butzel
Field.
This was
a
departure
of from
being
held at
the
traditional
Major
League
Briggs
Stadium,
which
had been
the
custom.
It was
standing
room
only at
Butzel
Field
with an
estimated
6,000 in
attendance.
“Cody
was not
used to
playing
under
the
lights
so my
fastball
looked
quicker,”
Pappas
told
Morris
Moorawnick
of the
Detroit
Times
sports
department.
On the
year, as
a
position
player,
he also
hit an
impressive
.500.
Pappas
was
scouted
heavily
and
rejected
a modest
bonus
from the
Detroit
Tigers
to sign
with the
Baltimore
Orioles.
He was
given a
personal
tryout
by
Orioles
manager,
Paul
Richards,
who
liked
the
control
of his
fastball.
“I was
with my
dad down
at the
stadium
working
out for
the
Tigers
and
afterwards
went up
John
McHale’s
office.
He knew
what the
Orioles
were
going to
give me.
I did
the
talking.
He
didn’t
up the
price. I
appreciated
what the
Tigers
did for
me but
Richards
really
took an
interest
with me.
The
Tigers
didn’t
match
it. Hal
Newhouser
scouted
me to
Richards,”
said
Pappas
in a
2012
television
special
syndicated
by the
Rolco
Sports &
Entrainment
Network.
In 1956
while
playing
for
Internal
Revenue
Post #
561, he
was
awarded
the Kiki
Cuyler
Trophy
as
Michigan
American
Legion
Most
Valuable
Player.
He had
great
success
when
paired
with his
Cooley
High
School
catcher,
Larry
Cutwright.
Cutwright
was also
a summer
sandlot
teammate
on those
Internal
Revenue
Post #
561
squads
and the
next
season
it was
his turn
to be
the 1957
Kiki
Cuyler
Trophy
MVP
winner.
Detroit
Cooley
was a
sports
powerhouse
then and
Abe
Eliowitz,
their
prep
baseball
coach
said in
a 1957
Detroit
Free
Press
article,
“We
never
lost a
game in
the
Detroit
PSL when
those
two
hooked
up as
Cardinals.”
The
6-foot-3
son of
an
immigrant
druggist
was on
his way
to
winning
209
games in
MLB. The
18 year
old
right
hander
made his
Major
League
debut on
August
10, 1957
in
relief
against
the New
York
Yankees.
He
vividly
recalled
for me
in 2012,
at his
Michigan
Sports
Hall of
Fame
induction
when
asked
about
his
first
game, “I
was
summoned
in
relief
to face
the
heart of
the New
York
Yankees’
lineup:
Mickey
Mantle,
Yogi
Berra,
Enos
Slaughter
and
Moose
Skowron.
“My
first
warm-up
pitch
went 50
feet
over
(catcher)
Gus
Triandos’
head,”
Pappas
said.
“He knew
I was
Greek so
he said
a few
cuss
words in
Greek.
“Next
Mickey
got a
hit -- I
heard it
go by my
ear, but
I never
saw the
ball. If
it hit
me, it
probably
would
have
killed
me.” He
then
recalled
slowly
and told
me, “I
just
started
laughing.”
Pappas
relaxed
and then
retired
the
side.
Pappas
continued,
“Some
say I
was
cocky, I
say
brash—they
were
only
Hall of
Fame
Yankees.”
In 1958
he made
the
Orioles’
starting
rotation
and
fashioned
a 10-10
record
for a
sixth
place
club. He
was the
first
member
of a
young
rotation
known as
the Baby
Birds;
by 1961
it
included
Chuck
Estrada,
Steve
Barber
and Jack
Fisher,
not one
of them
24 years
of age.
Richards
watched
the
pitch
count of
his
young
ace
carefully.
This
began a
streak
of 11
consecutive
double-digit
win
seasons.
He was
an
All-Star
in 1962
and 1965
for the
American
League
team. He
had a 17
year MLB
career,
starting
with the
Baltimore
Orioles
(1957–1965),
Cincinnati
Reds
(1966–1968),
Atlanta
Braves
(1968–1970)
and
Chicago
Cubs
(1970–1973).
In those
early
years,
on the
road for
the
Orioles,
Pappas
roomed
with
Brook
Robinson.
Richards
thought
it would
be a
calming
pairing
for
Pappas.
Hall of
Fame
broadcaster,
Ernie
Harwell,
also
called
the
games
for the
Orioles
in 1957
and he
said, “I
knew
Pappas
would
have
success,
especially
in
cavernous
Memorial
Stadium.
Teammate
and
native
Detroiter,
Art
Houtteman,
echoed
the same
sentiments
in a
Baltimore
newspaper.
In 1959,
Detroit
could
brag
about
two
national
champion
sandlot
teams,
the 1959
Hamtramck
Little
League
National
Champions
and the
1959
American
Legion
National
Champion-Detroit
Edison
Post #
187
squad.
They
were
hosted
with a
celebration
dinner
sponsored
by the
Detroit
Tigers
Baseball
Club and
Ford
Motor
Company
at the
Dearborn
Inn.
Pappas
was
invited
to be
the
keynote
speaker.
With all
the
Detroit
Tigers
in
attendance,
including
Al
Kaline,
Pappas
amused
and
motivated.
He was
still
only 20
at the
time.
In the
wintertime
of 1965,
Pappas,
pitcher,
Jack
Baldschun,
and
outfielder
Dick
Simpson
were
traded
to the
Cincinnati
Reds for
Frank
Robinson.
There
was
outrage
in
Cincinnati
from the
many
fans of
Robinson.
It was
somewhat
warranted
as
Robinson
fulfilled
his
future
Baseball
Hall of
Fame
status
with an
illustrious
career.
The deal
made
baseball
life
difficult
for
Pappas
along
the
baseball
rich
Ohio
River
next to
Covington,
Kentucky
and
Cincinnati,
Ohio.
In June
of 1968
he was
traded
to
Atlanta,
shortly
after
the
assassination
of
Robert
F.
Kennedy.
Several
teams
declined
to play
on June
8, the
day of
the
burial,
but the
Reds’
players
voted to
play —
reportedly
by a
slim
margin
and only
after
they had
been
pressured
by
management.
Resenting
the ball
clubs
interference,
Pappas
resigned
as the
team’s
player
representative,
and he
was
traded
three
days
later.
While
pitching
for the
Cubs,
Pappas
was
involved
in a
bitter-sweet
no-hitter.
On
September
2, 1972
at
Wrigley
Field in
front of
only
11,144
he
fashioned
a
no-hitter
against
the San
Diego
Padres,
8–0. He
retired
the
first 26
batters
and was
one
strike
away
from a
perfect
game
with a
2–2
count on
pinch-hitter
Larry
Stahl.
Home-plate
umpire
Bruce
Froemming
called
the next
two
pitches
— both
of which
were
close —
balls.
Pappas
believed
he had
struck
out
Stahl,
and even
decades
later,
he
continued
to
resent
Froemming.
A
Chicago
radio
personality,
during
an
interview
with
Pappas,
got
Froemming
on the
phone.
Pappas
and
Froemming
argued
vigorously
on the
air.
Pappas
also
said in
2006
that he
has seen
videotape
highlight
footage
of that
game on
WGN-TV
and can
see
Froemming
smirking
immediately
after
the walk
was
issued.
Froemming
always
denied
the
charge
and said
he
wasn’t
even
aware it
was a
potential
perfect
game.
The game
was a
pitching
masterpiece
with
only
four
balls
hit to
the
outfield.
There
wasn’t
anything
close to
a hit
for the
Padres
until
Enzo
Hernandez
dropped
a nearly
perfect
bunt
down the
third
base
line
leading
off the
fourth
inning.
The ball
rolled
foul at
the last
instant
as Ron
Santo
could do
no more
than
watch.
Hernandez
eventually
struck
out.
In the
fifth,
Cub’s
shortstop
Don
Kessinger
made a
spectacular
play to
take a
hit away
from
Nate
Colbert.
Kessinger
raced
deep
into the
hole
between
third
and
short to
backhand
Colbert’s
grounder,
and then
threw
him out
at first
by half
a step.
The
throw
was from
the
outfield
grass.
The
ninth
brought
up
pinch-hitter
Stahl,
and with
the help
of the
pitch
calls by
Froemming,
the
perfect
game
ended
after
Pappas
had
retired
26
batters
in a
row.
That
left
matters
up to
pinch-hitter
Garry
Jestadt,
and he
popped
out to
Carmen
Fanzone
at
second
to end
the
game.
“Milt
jumped
up in
the
air,”
former
teammate
and
Baseball
Hall of
Famer
Billy
Williams
recalled
Tuesday.
“I don’t
know
what he
said,
but
you’d
have to
use
asterisks
and
dashes
and all
that
stuff
(signifying
profanity)
if you
printed
it. He
held
that
against
Bruce a
long
time.”
Pappas
finished
the
season
with a
17-7
record,
his
second
straight
17-win
campaign.
Another
milestone
game
came
later
that
same
year
when
Pappas
recorded
his
200th
career
victory,
also at
Wrigley
Field,
defeating
the
Montreal
Expos
6–2.
When
asked
who his
toughest
out was,
Pappas
answered
emphatically,
“Switch
hitter,
Ted
Simmons,
when he
was a
St,
Louis
Cardinal.”
A
different
kind of
controversy
involved
his wife
and high
school
sweetheart,
Carole.
On
September
11,
1982,
she
disappeared
after
leaving
their
home in
the
Farnham
subdivision
in the
Chicago
suburb
of
Wheaton.
She was
42 at
the
time.
For five
years,
no sign
was
found of
her 1980
Buick or
her
body. In
September
of 1987,
workers
draining
a
shallow
pond a
few
blocks
from the
Pappas
home
discovered
her car.
Inside
the
white
and
burgundy
auto was
her
decomposed
body
slumped
over.
Dental
records,
clothing
and
jewelry
found on
the
body,
were
used as
identifying
tools.
Coroner
Richard
Ballinger
said an
autopsy
revealed
no
evidence
of
trauma
to the
body.
The
DuPage
County
coroner’s
jury
ruled
the
cause of
death as
an
accidental
drowning.
Police
theorized
she was
disoriented
and
mistook
a
driveway
near the
pond for
a road
leading
to her
subdivision.
Her car
at that
moment
vaulted
25–30
feet
from the
elevated
bank
into the
pond.
Ultimately,
the
vehicle
was
covered
with
autumn
foliage
debris
and not
seen.
They had
been
married
22
years.
Pappas
authored
a book
about
the
tragedy,
“Out at
Home”
and also
told the
narrative
of his
life in
baseball.
He was
assisted
in the
project
by Wayne
Mausser
and
Larry D.
Names.
His
younger
brother,
Perry,
also out
of
Cooley
High
School,
was
known to
throw
harder.
Perry
signed
with the
New York
Yankees
in 1964
for a
bigger
bonus
and
predeceased
Milt.
Pappas
was
seriously
injured
in a
February
2013
single-vehicle
accident
in
Kankakee
County
when he
crashed
into a
utility
pole and
rolled
his Jeep
Cherokee.
He was
hospitalized
for
several
days and
suffered
fractured
ribs and
a
lacerated
ear.
He owned
a
restaurant
in
Baltimore,
Milt
Pappas’
Scotch &
Sirloin
and in
retirement
kept
busy
representing
a
hospitality
distributor
and
later as
a
Chicago
Cub’s
ambassador.
Cub’s
executive
chairman
Tom
Ricketts
said the
team was
saddened
by news
of
Pappas’
death.
“Milt
will
forever
be
remembered
for one
of the
most
dramatic
pitching
performances
in team
history
as he
delivered
a
no-hitter
that
neared
perfection
in
1972,”
Ricketts
said.
“We will
always
consider
him part
of the
Chicago
Cubs
family.”
Milt
Pappas
was an
honored
member
of the
Michigan
Sports
Hall of
Fame,
The
International
Greek
Sports
Hall of
Fame,
the
Chicagoland
Sports
Hall of
Fame and
Orioles
Hall of
Fame.
Funeral
arraignments
are
pending.
He is
survived
by his
second
wife
Judi (Bloome)
and
children
Steve
and
Alexandria.
A
daughter,
Michelle,
passed
away in
2015.
Editors
Note:
Raymond
Rolak is
a
filmmaker
and
veteran
sports
broadcaster
who
writes
about
pop-culture.
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