Milt Pappas - Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

In 1970, the Braves pulled Pappas from their rotation after only three starts, after he compiled a 6.06 ERA and allowed six home runs. On June 23, they sold him to the Chicago Cubs, where he got another chance to prove he was still a major league starter. Pappas posted a 7–2 record with a 2.36 ERA at home and a 10–8 record with a 2.68 ERA overall. In 1971, Pappas went 17–14 (the wins being a career best) with a 3.51 ERA. On September 24 of that year, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field, Pappas struck out three batters (two of whom were Greg Luzinski and Don Money) on nine pitches in the fourth inning of a 6–1 loss, becoming the 10th National League pitcher and the 16th pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the nine-strike/three-strikeout half-inning. Five days later, against the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park, Pappas was again part of baseball history, albeit on the other side: he was responsible for Ron Hunt's 50th hit by pitch of the season, which broke the single-season record of 49 set by Hughie Jennings in 1896. Pappas complained, unsuccessfully, to home plate umpire Ken Burkhart that the pitch had been over the plate, and that Hunt had made no effort to get out of the way. (Later research would credit Jennings with 51 HBPs, giving him the single-season record once again.)

In 1972, Pappas went 17-7 with a 2.77 earned run average, his best full-season ERA since his 2.60 in 1965, his last year in Baltimore. On September 2 of that year, at Wrigley Field, Pappas no-hit 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, but 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 in 2008, continued to begrudge Froemming. Some 25 years later, a Chicago radio personality, during an interview with Pappas, got Froemming on the phone and the two argued on the air. Pappas also said in 2006 that he has seen video tape footage of that game on WGN and can see Froemming smirking immediately after the walk was issued; Froemming denied the charge.

Pappas ended the game by retiring the next batter, ex-Cub Garry Jestadt. Until Carlos Zambrano no-hit the Houston Astros on September 14, 2008, Pappas' had been the last no-hitter the Cubs had been involved in—either pitching it or having it pitched against them. They had gone the longest of all Major League teams since they had last been involved in a no-hitter. Eleven days after his no-hitter, he recorded his 200th career victory, also at Wrigley Field, defeating the Montreal Expos 6–2. In 1973, he won only 7 games with 12 losses and a 4.28 ERA. However, with one of those wins, on August 22 against the Reds, he surpassed the 207 career victories of Hal Newhouser, the man who scouted and signed him. Prior to the start of the 1974 season he was released by the Cubs. He retired with 209 victories, becoming the first-ever 200-game winner who did not win 20 games in any one season. (Jerry Reuss, Frank Tanana, Charlie Hough, Dennis Martínez, Chuck Finley, Kenny Rogers, and Tim Wakefield have since joined him in this category. Mike Mussina reached 200 victories without winning 20 in any one season, but recorded a 20-win season afterward.)

Pappas's manager on the Cubs, Leo Durocher, had unkind words for Pappas (and several other Cubs) in his memoir Nice Guys Finish Last.