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https://www.detroitathletic.com/blog/2016/04/29/detroit-native-milt-pappas-dies-at-age-76/
Former Detroit high school star Milt Pappas won more than 200 games.
Detroit Athletic
The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit lost one of their own earlier this month. Milt Pappas, a longtime right-handed pitcher and a winner of more than 200 games, died on April 19. He was 76.
Born in Detroit, Pappas became a star at Cooley High School in the 1950s. As a youngster, he often received free tickets to Tiger Stadium from John McHale, who was working in the front office of the Detroit Tigers at the time. Pappas would have been a natural signing for the Detroit Tigers, who brought him to the ballpark one day. ?I got my high school coach and went to the Tiger offices,? Pappas told sportswriter Jim Ferguson. ?They really had a turnout for me, all the club?s top brass. Even [owner] Spike Briggs dropped in for a few minutes.?
Urged by glowing reports from Hal Newhouser, who scouted the young pitcher. McHale told Pappas the Tigers were willing to offer him a bonus of $4,000 and an assignment to Class-D ball. Shortly thereafter, the Baltimore Orioles outbid the Tigers by offering Pappas a major league contract.
After appearing in only three minor league games, Pappas was rushed to the major leagues under terms of his contract. He made his major league debut at the age of 18 and enjoyed almost immediate success. After a four-game cameo in 1957, he spent all of ?58 in Baltimore and won 10 games. The following summer, he lowered his ERA by nearly a run, won 15 games, and emerged as a solid No. 2 starter behind Hoyt Wilhelm.
Pappas became part of a flock of talented young Birds pitchers in the early 1960s. The group included left-hander Steve Barber and right-handers Chuck Estrada and Jerry Walker. With Pappas showing as much promise as any of the young starters, the Orioles appeared to be well-stocked in pitching for years to come.
If there was a drawback to Pappas, it involved his volatile nature. He sometimes argued with his managers, once refusing Billy Hitchcock?s request to go the bullpen, and also yelled at opposing hitters. Those tendencies made Pappas controversial in some circles, but his defenders explained those habits as mere symptoms of his highly competitive nature.
Other than 1962, when his ERA rose to 4.02, Pappas pitched beautifully for the Birds. By the end of his tenure in Baltimore, he had qualified for two All-Star teams and lowered his ERA to 2.60. There was no reason to think that Pappas was headed elsewhere after the 1965 season.
That winter, the Orioles had an opportunity to acquire a superstar in Frank Robinson. The Reds, considering Robby an old 30, decided to offer him around both leagues. They wanted Pappas, who was only 26 years of age and still very much in his prime, as part of a return package.
The Orioles agreed to the demand, but took criticism for dealing a talented young starter in exchange for a player seemingly on the back nine of his career. No one knew that Robinson would resuscitate his career by winning the Triple Crown in 1966. Sadly, that trade became the most remembered occurrence of Pappas? career, even though he was not at fault. He simply became a subject of circumstances, a victim of Robinon?s greatness and the inevitable comparisons to a Hall of Famer.
After the 1966 season, Pappas took some criticism from ex-teammate Joe Nuxhall, who claimed that Milt didn?t give 100 percent with the Reds. Nuxhall said that some of the Reds players regarded Pappas as a hypochondriac. For the most part, Pappas refused to respond, other than saying it was ?the damndest thing I ever heard.?
While Pappas disappointed some in Cincinnati, especially in relation to what Robby did in Baltimore, there is an overly simplistic tendency to underrate Pappas. After the trade, he won 99 games, falling just one win short of 100 victories in each league. Including his time with the Orioles, he won in double figures for 11 straight seasons and won 209 games for his career. That?s not shabby. Pappas was hardly a bust. He simply made the ?mistake? of not being a Hall of Famer.
A slow start to Pappas? 1968 season resulted in another trade. The Reds sent the Greek right-hander to the Atlanta Braves as part of a six-player deal. Pappas struggled in Atlanta. It was the only team with which he failed to have an impact. Another slow start, this time in 1970, resulted in him being sold to the Chicago Cubs. (Remarkably, the Cubs gave up no talent to acquire Pappas, just money.)
Pappas enjoyed a nice renaissance in Chicago at the tail end of his career, including a ninth-place finish in the 1972 Cy Young Award race. On September 2 of that season, Pappas became embroiled in controversy when his perfect game bid against the San Diego Padres ended due to a disputed ball four call by home plate umpire Bruce Froemming. With two outs in the ninth inning and the count 2-and-2 on pinch-hitter Larry Stahl, Pappas threw a slider to the outside half of the plate. Pappas felt the pitch was close enough to be called a strike, but Froemming ruled it outside. With the count now full, Pappas threw another slider. Again, ball four. The walk to Stahl ended the perfect game, motivating Pappas to stomp off the mound and start shouting obscenities (some of them in Greek) to Froemming. A few moments later, Pappas gathered himself, inducing a weak pop-up by Garry Jestadt to give himself the consolation prize of a no-hitter.
To the end of his life, Pappas remained angry about the call. Whenever writers or broadcasters asked him about the would-be perfecto, Pappas avoided all diplomacy and renewed his verbal attack on Froemming. Even though Pappas admitted that the two pitches were a half-inch outside, he felt that Froemming should have given him the benefit of the doubt in his pursuit of the perfect game. Pappas accused the umpire of seeking publicity by denying the perfect game.
After a lackluster 1973, Pappas drew his release in the spring of 1974, much to the surprise of many Cubs observers. No other team showed interest, so Pappas retired. For the most part, he remained out of the spotlight until 1982, when tragedy struck his family. His wife Carole went missing that year, spurring concerns that she had been murdered. At one point, suspicion unfairly centered on Pappas, even though there was no evidence that he had done anything wrong.
Five years later, Carole?s body was found in a car submerged in a nearby lake. It turns out that she had been driving a car that accidentally skidded off the road into the water, resulting in her death by drowning. The police ruled out any possibility of foul play.
By the time that his wife?s body was found, Pappas had remarried, urged by his children to move on with his life. He seemed to find some peace, but narrowly escaped another tragedy in 2013 when his car rammed into a utility pole and resulted in him breaking several ribs. And then in 2015, Pappas suffered the loss of a daughter from his first marriage, Michelle.
Pappas certainly did not have it easy over his 76 years. The unfair comparisons to Frank Robinson, the would-be perfect game, the loss of his first wife, and then the death of a daughter must have taken a toll. Somehow, he overcome the problems and the tragedies to have success in baseball and then in business, where he owned and operated his own restaurant.
From start to finish, Milt Pappas persevered.
Former Detroit high school star Milt Pappas won more than 200 games.
Detroit Athletic
The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit lost one of their own earlier this month. Milt Pappas, a longtime right-handed pitcher and a winner of more than 200 games, died on April 19. He was 76.
Born in Detroit, Pappas became a star at Cooley High School in the 1950s. As a youngster, he often received free tickets to Tiger Stadium from John McHale, who was working in the front office of the Detroit Tigers at the time. Pappas would have been a natural signing for the Detroit Tigers, who brought him to the ballpark one day. ?I got my high school coach and went to the Tiger offices,? Pappas told sportswriter Jim Ferguson. ?They really had a turnout for me, all the club?s top brass. Even [owner] Spike Briggs dropped in for a few minutes.?
Urged by glowing reports from Hal Newhouser, who scouted the young pitcher. McHale told Pappas the Tigers were willing to offer him a bonus of $4,000 and an assignment to Class-D ball. Shortly thereafter, the Baltimore Orioles outbid the Tigers by offering Pappas a major league contract.
After appearing in only three minor league games, Pappas was rushed to the major leagues under terms of his contract. He made his major league debut at the age of 18 and enjoyed almost immediate success. After a four-game cameo in 1957, he spent all of ?58 in Baltimore and won 10 games. The following summer, he lowered his ERA by nearly a run, won 15 games, and emerged as a solid No. 2 starter behind Hoyt Wilhelm.
Pappas became part of a flock of talented young Birds pitchers in the early 1960s. The group included left-hander Steve Barber and right-handers Chuck Estrada and Jerry Walker. With Pappas showing as much promise as any of the young starters, the Orioles appeared to be well-stocked in pitching for years to come.
If there was a drawback to Pappas, it involved his volatile nature. He sometimes argued with his managers, once refusing Billy Hitchcock?s request to go the bullpen, and also yelled at opposing hitters. Those tendencies made Pappas controversial in some circles, but his defenders explained those habits as mere symptoms of his highly competitive nature.
Other than 1962, when his ERA rose to 4.02, Pappas pitched beautifully for the Birds. By the end of his tenure in Baltimore, he had qualified for two All-Star teams and lowered his ERA to 2.60. There was no reason to think that Pappas was headed elsewhere after the 1965 season.
That winter, the Orioles had an opportunity to acquire a superstar in Frank Robinson. The Reds, considering Robby an old 30, decided to offer him around both leagues. They wanted Pappas, who was only 26 years of age and still very much in his prime, as part of a return package.
The Orioles agreed to the demand, but took criticism for dealing a talented young starter in exchange for a player seemingly on the back nine of his career. No one knew that Robinson would resuscitate his career by winning the Triple Crown in 1966. Sadly, that trade became the most remembered occurrence of Pappas? career, even though he was not at fault. He simply became a subject of circumstances, a victim of Robinon?s greatness and the inevitable comparisons to a Hall of Famer.
After the 1966 season, Pappas took some criticism from ex-teammate Joe Nuxhall, who claimed that Milt didn?t give 100 percent with the Reds. Nuxhall said that some of the Reds players regarded Pappas as a hypochondriac. For the most part, Pappas refused to respond, other than saying it was ?the damndest thing I ever heard.?
While Pappas disappointed some in Cincinnati, especially in relation to what Robby did in Baltimore, there is an overly simplistic tendency to underrate Pappas. After the trade, he won 99 games, falling just one win short of 100 victories in each league. Including his time with the Orioles, he won in double figures for 11 straight seasons and won 209 games for his career. That?s not shabby. Pappas was hardly a bust. He simply made the ?mistake? of not being a Hall of Famer.
A slow start to Pappas? 1968 season resulted in another trade. The Reds sent the Greek right-hander to the Atlanta Braves as part of a six-player deal. Pappas struggled in Atlanta. It was the only team with which he failed to have an impact. Another slow start, this time in 1970, resulted in him being sold to the Chicago Cubs. (Remarkably, the Cubs gave up no talent to acquire Pappas, just money.)
Pappas enjoyed a nice renaissance in Chicago at the tail end of his career, including a ninth-place finish in the 1972 Cy Young Award race. On September 2 of that season, Pappas became embroiled in controversy when his perfect game bid against the San Diego Padres ended due to a disputed ball four call by home plate umpire Bruce Froemming. With two outs in the ninth inning and the count 2-and-2 on pinch-hitter Larry Stahl, Pappas threw a slider to the outside half of the plate. Pappas felt the pitch was close enough to be called a strike, but Froemming ruled it outside. With the count now full, Pappas threw another slider. Again, ball four. The walk to Stahl ended the perfect game, motivating Pappas to stomp off the mound and start shouting obscenities (some of them in Greek) to Froemming. A few moments later, Pappas gathered himself, inducing a weak pop-up by Garry Jestadt to give himself the consolation prize of a no-hitter.
To the end of his life, Pappas remained angry about the call. Whenever writers or broadcasters asked him about the would-be perfecto, Pappas avoided all diplomacy and renewed his verbal attack on Froemming. Even though Pappas admitted that the two pitches were a half-inch outside, he felt that Froemming should have given him the benefit of the doubt in his pursuit of the perfect game. Pappas accused the umpire of seeking publicity by denying the perfect game.
After a lackluster 1973, Pappas drew his release in the spring of 1974, much to the surprise of many Cubs observers. No other team showed interest, so Pappas retired. For the most part, he remained out of the spotlight until 1982, when tragedy struck his family. His wife Carole went missing that year, spurring concerns that she had been murdered. At one point, suspicion unfairly centered on Pappas, even though there was no evidence that he had done anything wrong.
Five years later, Carole?s body was found in a car submerged in a nearby lake. It turns out that she had been driving a car that accidentally skidded off the road into the water, resulting in her death by drowning. The police ruled out any possibility of foul play.
By the time that his wife?s body was found, Pappas had remarried, urged by his children to move on with his life. He seemed to find some peace, but narrowly escaped another tragedy in 2013 when his car rammed into a utility pole and resulted in him breaking several ribs. And then in 2015, Pappas suffered the loss of a daughter from his first marriage, Michelle.
Pappas certainly did not have it easy over his 76 years. The unfair comparisons to Frank Robinson, the would-be perfect game, the loss of his first wife, and then the death of a daughter must have taken a toll. Somehow, he overcome the problems and the tragedies to have success in baseball and then in business, where he owned and operated his own restaurant.
From start to finish, Milt Pappas persevered.
