"Denny" McLain - Detroit Tigers (1963-1970)

Subject: "Denny" McLain - Detroit Tigers (1963-1970) Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:44 pm

Denny McLain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dennis Dale "Denny" McLain (born March 29, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is a former American professional baseball player. He is the last major league pitcher to win 30 or more games during a season.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

All-star 1966, 1968, and 1969
1968 and 1969 AL Cy Young Awards
1968 AL MVP
1968 Major League Player of the Year
1968 and 1969 AL TSN Pitcher of the Year
Led AL in sacrifice hits in 1968 (16) and 1969 (13)
Led AL in wins in 1968 (31) and 1969 (24)
Led AL in innings pitched in 1968 (336) and 1969 (325)
Led AL in games started in 1968 (41) and 1969 (41)
Led AL in Batters Faced in 1968 (1,288) and 1969 (1,304)
Led AL in won-loss % (.838), complete games (20) and strikeouts to walks (4.44) in 1968
Led AL in shutouts in 1969 (9)
Holds Detroit Tigers single season records for Wins (31 in 1968),
WHIP (.905 in 1968), Shutouts (9 in 1969) and SO to Walk (4.44 in 1968)
Detroit Tigers All-Time Leader in Won-Loss % (.654), WHIP (1.112) and Hits Allowed/9IP (7.46)

Professional playing career

McLain attended Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago, and played shortstop and pitcher. Originally signed by the Chicago White Sox, he was selected off waivers by the Detroit Tigers, with whom he broke into the major leagues in 1963. His first good season came in 1965, when he posted a 2.61 ERA and a 16-6 record. He would remain one of the top pitchers in Major League Baseball until 1969.

His 1968 season was a remarkable one, as he went 31-6, was an All-Star, won the Cy Young Award, received the AL Most Valuable Player Award, and was on the World Series-winning Detroit Tigers. His 31 wins that year made him the first pitcher to win 30 games in a season since Dizzy Dean. (McLain might have won 33 games that year had it not been for two 2-1 losses late in the season.) After the Tigers had clinched the '68 AL pennant, McLain exhibited a rare display of magnanimity in a game against the New York Yankees; in cruising to his 31st victory, with the Tigers leading 6-1, McLain intentionally gave up a 'fat' pitch to Mickey Mantle, allowing the soon-to-retire Mantle to hit his 535th homer and pass Jimmie Foxx on the all-time home run list.

McLain's 1968 World Series performance was not as stellar, however, as he lost Games 1 and 4 to Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals, who posted a 1.12 ERA during the '68 season to win the National League Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards. Trailing 3 games to 2, McLain won the crucial Game 6 on just two days' rest, aided by a grand slam from Jim Northrup. Teammate Mickey Lolich went 3-0 in the series, including a complete game triumph in Game 7 against Gibson, and won the World Series MVP award.

McLain was a three-time All-Star and won the Cy Young Award twice in
his career, in 1968 and 1969; in the latter year, he shared the award with Mike Cuellar. His lifetime record includes a won-loss tally of 131-91, an ERA of 3.39, and 1282 strikeouts in 1886 innings pitched. Further, McLain held
Hall of Famers Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson to a .223 collective batting average (59-for-265); he also held All-Stars Tommie Agee, Bert Campaneris, Rocky Colavito, Tommy Davis, Jimmie Hall, Ken Harrelson, and Vada Pinson to a .116 collective batting average (30-for-258).

Downfall of McLain's MLB career

Denny McLain (1971)

In addition to arm trouble, allegations of bookmaking and associations with gamblers and underworld criminals shortened Denny McLain's career. Early in his career, McLain’s interest in betting on horses was piqued by Chuck Dressen, one of his first managers. McLain’s descent into his gambling obsession was further precipitated by an offhand remark made during an
interview—that he drank about a case of Pepsi a day. (When he pitched, he was known to down a Pepsi between innings.) A representative from Pepsi then offered McLain a contract with the company, just for doing a few endorsements. McLain soon realized that he and the Pepsi rep shared an affinity for gambling; when the two realized how much money they were losing, and that they could earn so much more by ‘taking the action’ on bets, they attempted to set up a bookmaking operation as hands-off, silent partners.

After Sports Illustrated and Penthouse Magazine both broke stories about McLain's nefarious activities, he was suspended by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for the first three months of the 1970 season. McLain was suspended later in the season by the Detroit club for dousing two sportswriters with buckets of water (one of whom was Jim Hawkins of the Oakland Press).
And just when he was about to come back from that, he received another
suspension from Kuhn (for at least the rest of the season) for carrying
a gun on a team flight.

Also, Sports Illustrated reported that a foot injury suffered by McLain late in 1967 had been caused by an organized crime figure stomping on it for McLain's failure to pay off on a bet. (McLain missed six starts because of this injury, coming back to pitch and lose the Tigers' final game of the season against the California Angels, which cost his team the 1967 pennant.) McLain’s ‘official’ story of what caused the injury kept changing—often a sign of prevarication or duplicity: on various occasions, he claimed that he had kicked his locker after a particularly disappointing start; fallen asleep watching television, then wrenching his toes against some furniture when he woke up in the dark; kicked some garbage cans being ‘terrorized’ by squirrels; and fallen into a manhole while being chased by a pack of wild dogs.

McLain's 1970 season ended with a won-lost record of only 3-5. He was reinstated after season's end, and he was traded to the Washington Senators. In his attempted comeback with the Senators in 1971, McLain went 10-22. He thus earned the dubious distinction of being the only player to go from leading his league in wins (tied with Mike Cuellar with 24 win in 1969) to two years later leading his league in losses.

McLain last played in the majors in 1972 at age 28, after briefly pitching for the Oakland A's and Atlanta Braves, going 4-7 with a 6.37 ERA. The Braves, who had acquired McLain from Oakland in a trade for future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, released McLain on March 26, 1973.

Post-professional 'career'

In 1973, McLain again tried to make a comeback, pitching in the minor leagues with Des Moines and Shreveport. The following year, he played a season for the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League at Labatt Memorial Park in London, Ontario, Canada. Given his arm problems, McLain only pitched nine innings for the Majors, but he did play in 14 games at either shortstop, first base, or catcher, and batted .380, including hitting two homers in one game in London.

McLain continued to earn side money at clubs playing the organ, which his father taught him to play. (He was also a pop performer on the organ before and during his baseball career—and he sometimes played the organ during Tiger games while he was still an active player.) McLain also earned quite a bit of money hustling golf, easily attracting 'marks' due to his past baseball fame. Additionally, he reportedly once accepted over $100,000 to fly a wanted felon out of the country.

In his post-baseball career, his weight ballooned to 330 pounds. He was imprisoned for drug trafficking, embezzlement, and racketeering with Anthony Spilotro and later John Gotti Jr.. Attorney Lawrence R. Greene represented McLain before the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, where his RICO conviction obtained in the United States District Court for the Central District of Florida at Tampa was reversed. Between his stints in prison and rehabilitation in the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, McLain could be found on various sports shows on talk radio and
occasionally on panel-format sports shows on network television in the
Detroit area. He could also be found signing autographs at a metro Detroit 7-Eleven store at the corner of Mound Road and Metro Parkway in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where he was employed on work-release.[1] During the Detroit Tigers 2006 playoff run, McLain was the baseball analyst for Drew and Mike on WRIF radio in Detroit.

In the early 90s, McLain purchased the Peet Packing Company (Farmer Peet's) located in the small town of Chesaning, MI. He was convicted on
charges of embezzlement, mail fraud, and conspiracy in connection with the theft of $2.5 million from the Peet employees' pension fund. McLain spent six years in prison. The employees received all money owed to them.

In 2007, McLain released his autobiography "I Told You I Wasn't Perfect", co-authored by longtime Detroit sportscaster and author Eli Zaret.

McLain currently resides in Pinckney, Michigan, with his wife, Sharon, the daughter of Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau.[2]

Kevin Costner's character in the motion picture The Upside of Anger was partly based on McLain (and also partly on Kirk Gibson, another Tiger of World Series note).

No one will ever win 30 games in a season again

I even like this thread. Not a big McLain fan though.....

I'd like him a lot more if he wasn't such an idiot!
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Coming soon: A better signature!

AMEN!! He was so rotten to his teammates and all they did was LOVE the guy!!

Former Tiger pitcher Denny McLain evicted and arrested
BY CECIL ANGEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 12, 2008

Less than 5 1/2 years after his second stint in the federal prison system, Tigers legend Denny McLain finds himself in more trouble with the law.

McLain was arrested Friday afternoon at his home in Hamburg Township after Oakland County deputies, already there to evict him, discovered he had an outstanding warrant.

Oakland County court officers were at McLain's home to carry out possessions to satisfy a judgment in a foreclosure action against him in Oakland County Circuit Court, Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said. The officers had a locksmith with them to padlock the home on Mercer.

The Oakland County deputies discovered McLain had a warrant issued Jan. 16 out of 53rd District Court in Brighton for failure to appear on a civil charge.

McLain was arrested at 3 p.m. and his bond was set at 10% of $175,000. He was taken to the Livingston County jail, arraigned via video from the jail and has a court appearance Monday.

"He said if he knew about the civil case, he would have shown up," Bezotte said. "He said he's always shown up for court."

Bezotte also said McLain said "he has been broke for a while."

Shortly before 8 p.m., McLain was released after his wife, Sharyn, and attorney, Michael Olson of Howell, went to the jail with a bail bondsman.

McLain, who denied a request for an interview, cooperated with the arrest, Bezotte said.

Efforts to get McLain's court files were unsuccessful. According to online court records, McLain has four "general civil" cases from 2005, 2006 and 2007; details were not available.

McLain, 64, won the Cy Young Award twice with the Tigers and is the last pitcher to win 30 games in a season. But his life since 1970 has been an epic roller-coaster of success in radio and TV and long stretches in jail because of accusations of drug dealing and pension embezzlement.

His most recent time in the public eye came last year, when he published his third autobiography, "I Told You I Wasn't Perfect" (Triumph Books), written with his former TV partner, Eli Zaret.

It traced McLain's life from receiving childhood beatings from his dad to sucking up to John Gotti Jr. in prison. McLain flayed some of his teammates, especially Al Kaline, from the 1968 championship team.

In 1985, McLain was indicted on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiracy to import the drug. He was convicted of the charges and sentenced to 23 years in jail.

McLain did just over two years and was released when his conviction was reversed, on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

McLain and a business associate bought a meatpacking company in Chesaning in 1993. McLain was accused of embezzling $3 million from the company's pension fund when the business went bankrupt in 1995.

McLain and his partner were charged with an assortment of crimes, including embezzlement, money laundering and mail fraud. McLain did nearly six years in prison, most at a minimum-security camp in Pennsylvania. He was released in 2003.
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There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher, 1971

McLain Released From Jail After Arrest

1 hour ago

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Former Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain has been released from jail following his arrest on a warrant related to a civil case.

Michael Olson, a lawyer for McLain, said Saturday that the former Detroit Tigers pitcher posted bond Friday night.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said Friday that Oakland County sheriff's deputies had gone to McLain's house Friday in a foreclosure action.

Bezotte said they learned there was an outstanding warrant against McLain for failing to appear for a Jan. 16 court hearing in Brighton, then arrested him without incident. He appeared before a judge, who set bond at 10 percent of $175,000.

Olson said he doesn't represent McLain in the civil case, and doesn't believe that McLain has a lawyer in that case. He said he spoke with McLain on Saturday, and McLain didn't want to comment on his arrest.

Bezotte said he didn't know what the civil case is about.

The 64-year-old McLain won two Cy Young Awards and was the major leagues' last 30-game winner, winning 31 for the world champion Tigers in 1968.
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bow

Stupid Denny

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Coming soon: A better signature!

thanks for draggin' the Tigs down, MR. McClain!
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There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher, 1971

Call Dr. Kervorkhian!!

he just looks like he himself could expire at any time!
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There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher, 1971

McLain better start signing autographs!

Thousands of them!