Want to get Milt Pappas all riled up? Mention Bruce Froemming's call on Milt's bottom-of-the-ninth, two-out, full-count pitch to Larry Stahl. The fateful pitch (and call) occurred 39 years ago today, as Milt was on the verge of pitching the first perfect game in Cubs history, and — as the MLB network clip below illustrates — MIlt's still pretty friggin' bitter about the whole thing.
Still, the man born Miltiades Stergios Papastergios was able to get the next batter, Garry Jestadt, to pop to second, thus notching no-no. It was the Cubs' second no-hitter of that year (Burt Hooton threw the first), and what would be the franchise's last one until Carlos Zambrano no-hit the Astros in 2008. (It's still the last Cubs' no-no thrown at Wrigley Field.)
Historical importance aside, the clip also offers a rare chance to see the Padres in action in their early-70s all-mustard ensembles, which I personally prefer to the mustard-and-fecal brown unis of the later part of the decade, which always looked to me like Ray Kroc got them run off at the iron-on t-shirt store at the nearest mall. It's also cool to hear the late, great Jack Brickhouse making the call...
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