Forty summers ago, fans were treated to one of the great Red Wings seasons. The 1974 campaign saw Joe Altobelli's crew finish at 88-56, romping to the Northern Division pennant, followed by victories over Memphis and Syracuse to take the Governor's Cup. Bill Kirkpatrick led the International League with 15 victories and Paul Mitchell recorded the circuit's best winning percentage (.700) among hurlers at 14-6. Dyar Miller led the staff with 138 strikeouts and nine complete games. Wayne Garland tossed an opening day no-hitter and reliever Mickey Scott led the league with 17 saves- fueled by an outstanding 0.99 ERA. At the bat, the Wings led the IL in batting average, runs and RBI. Tom Shopay led the team at a .313 clip. Rob Andrews was tops for hits (165) and runs (84) and Doug DeCinces drove in the most Rochester scores with 66. Curt Motton slugged three homers during a game in June. Altobelli was named the minor league's Sporting News Manager of the Year. "In those days Baltimore's general manager was Harry Dalton," Joe says. "And we had a great scouting staff and they signed some good ballplayers. I had the good fortune to be managing at the time." The successes of 1974 served as a tribute to Morrie Silver, known as the "savior of Rochester baseball." Silver was the Wings long-time executive and guiding light who organized a stock-purchasing drive in the late 1950s to keep baseball in the city. Silver passed away early in the '74 season and the team wore black arm bands in his honor. A native of Southern California and a UCLA graduate, Gary Robson was first drafted by Atlanta and then by Baltimore. He moved up through the Orioles chain with Lodi and Asheville before arriving in Rochester in 1974 at the age of 23. With a doubleheader on the schedule for August 16th, Altobelli gave Robson a rare start on the mound. The right- hander was being used mainly as a reliever and was concerned at the time about his mechanics and control. His record was 2-2 with an ERA of 4.62, averaging a walk per inning. During his pre-game stretching and wind sprints Robson felt the extra pressure of 10,272 fans at Silver Stadium- the largest International League crowd of the year. The Charleston lineup was formidable. Seven of the 11 Charlies that would be facing Robson that night made it to the major leagues. Their starting pitcher, Kent Tekulve enjoyed a productive career in the bigs and starred in Pittsburgh's 1979 World series win over Baltimore. The first pitch of the Robson Perfect Game (no hits or errors and no batter reached base) served as a wake-up call. Charlie's lead-off man Bill Flowers golfed the ball long and out of the park- but foul- into the right field parking lot. But Gary settled down and got Flowers looking at a 3-2 tailing fastball- the first of Robson's 11 strikeouts that night. "And all of a sudden," he recalls, "I was totally relaxed. This aura of calm came over me." While the usual "silent treatment" was being employed in the Wings dugout, Robson kept mowing down the Charlies with a menu of mostly fastballs plus sliders. Wings catcher Don Hickey had been advised by Altobelli to quicken Robson's pace during the game. Hickey told the Times-Union's Ray Buck, "As soon as I gave him the ball back I called another pitch. It was the best game I ever saw anybody pitch." Besides the 11 K's, Charleston only hit two balls out of the infield. Three batters went down on harmless pop outs and four others grounded out. It was Hickey who made the defensive play of the game- sliding toward the backstop screen to snare a foul fly in the sixth. An inning earlier, Gary says he became a believer that something special was evolving when he struck out the side: fanning Ed Ott, Jim Campanis and future Hall of Fame manager, Tony LaRussa. In the bottom of the fifth, Rochester broke up the scoreless tie when Tom Shopay smacked a two-run homer. The huge crowd encouraged Robson as he went out for the seventh and final inning, the Wings still leading 2-0. Flowers struck out and Philip Bushman was retired on a fly to left. The final obstacle was Dave Augustine and the nerves began to emerge. "And I reared back and threw the first pitch right to the backstop," Robson recalls. "And everybody goes oooooohhhhh! So I said to myself: Gary, calm down, throw strikes!" A sinking fastball produced the final play of the game, a sharp grounder to third baseman Doug DeCinces. "And it was getting late at night," Robson remembers. "The grass had been getting moist and dewy. The first hop skipped and short-hopped Doug on the second hop. But he made a really good play, came up and made a perfect throw. Game over. And then it was bedlam, people jumping up and down. I knew it was a perfect game and I knew it was special. But when people started telling me the facts behind it, I was stunned!" Heading into the 2014 season, about 80,000 International League games have been played. Just five nine inning perfect games have been thrown, the last was in 2011 by Columbus' Justin Germano. There have been only seven seven inning perfect games (the last tossed by Leo Estrella for Syracuse in 2000). The IL also recognizes the five inning perfect game by Charlotte's Carlos Torres in 2009. Rochester has been victimized by a perfect game just once- in 1992 when Richmond Brave Pete Smith shut down Rochester over seven innings. The last no-hitter thrown by a Red Wing was by Dan Boone in 1990. "I don't know.. the spirit in the sky, God, whoever it was, someone was looking out for me that night," Robson says. "I was totally focused, totally relaxed. I hit every spot. Richie Garcia was the umpire- he became a very good major league baseball umpire and I could see why. He didn't miss a pitch that night. If I threw a pitch on the outside corner, strike.. if I missed, it was a ball. Every thing fell into place." The abundance of good arms with the Orioles' teams kept Robson from ever cracking into the starting lineup. He played parts of two more seasons with Rochester, but just 19 games in total through '75 and '76. Moves to the Milwaukee and Cleveland organizations didn't pan out either and he went overseas to coach club teams in Sweden and Holland. A move back to the U.S. led to a promotional job with Nike from 1981-86. In 1988 he served as pitching coach for the Beloit Brewers of the Midwest League. The next season he helped coach Milwaukee's rookie league team to the Arizona League championship. In 1990, Gary joined his wife at SAS Airlines in Sweden but by the mid-90's had earned his teaching credential in California and began 15 years in special education at Foothill High School in Tustin, CA. In 2000, Robson was elected to the UCLA Baseball Hall of Fame. At Foothill, he also coached the baseball team which won the 2007 CIF Championship. There, he helped develop numerous prospects including pitchers Phil Hughes, the New York Yankees 2004 number one draft choice and Brad Boxberger, now with San Diego. Currently, Robson and his wife, Ing Britt are living in Järvsö, Sweden where Gary teaches English part-time. Daughter, Jessica, a Southern California and CIF High Jump Champion went to Dartmouth College on a Track and Field scholarship, where she graduated in 2011. "I can't believe it's been 40 years," Robson says, looking back on the perfect game. "I'm gonna be 64 years old this year. I still dream about baseball, about those times, this game is still etched in my memory.. certain pitches, certain outs. Baseball is a funny game, based a lot on failure. In those times, there was no free agency, no arbitration and few- if any- agents. You're pretty much out there on your own. It was really hard for me to accept a lot of those things." "Playing in Rochester..Tobin White Hots, Silver Stadium. It was a great place to play.. that field had personality- the short porch in right, that big scoreboard that Jim Fuller hit balls over every once in awhile. I was happy to pitch the perfect game in front of 10,000 of the greatest baseball fans in the world. I will cherish the memory forever!" Thanks to Rich Jones at Companion Radio for arranging the Skype interview with Robson in Sweden. Bill Flynn was in attendance for the Robson perfect game. Flynn is a member of both the Rochester baseball Old Timers and Red Wings Hall of Fame committees.