Milt Pappas Loses a Perfect Game on a Walk, Settles for a No-Hitter

On September 2, 1972, Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs retired the first 26 San Diego Padres batters he faced. He stood one out from a perfect game. Pinch-hitter Larry Stahl stepped in with a 2-2 count, and home plate umpire Bruce Froemming called the next two pitches balls. Pappas was furious. The perfect game was gone, replaced by a walk that would haunt him for decades.

He regrouped. Garry Jestadt came up as the next pinch-hitter and popped out to second baseman Carmen Fanzone. Pappas had his no-hitter, and the Cubs won 8-0 at Wrigley Field, but the celebration carried a sting. Pappas believed the pitches to Stahl were strikes. Froemming maintained they were not. The two men argued about it publicly for years.

Pappas had been a solid major league pitcher since breaking in with the Baltimore Orioles at age 18 in 1957. He won 209 games over 17 seasons and was best remembered for being the player traded for Frank Robinson in December 1965, a deal widely considered the most lopsided in baseball history. The no-hitter gave him something entirely his own, a line in the record book that had nothing to do with Robinson or Baltimore.

Only 11,144 fans were at Wrigley Field that afternoon. The small crowd reflected the Cubs' position in the standings and the general aimlessness of their 1972 season. Pappas was 34 years old and in the final productive stretch of his career. He pitched one more season before retiring after 1973.

The near-miss has only grown in stature over time. Had Froemming called either pitch a strike, Pappas would have thrown the 11th perfect game in major league history. Instead, he threw a no-hitter with an asterisk that he carried to his grave.