FanHouse DennyMcLain

I always knew Denny McLain was big in 1968, but I guess I didn't know how big. As if winning 31 games, leading the Tigers to a World Series title and earning every first-place vote for the American League MVP and Cy Young awards wasn't enough, he also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show performing "The Girl from Ipanema" on the organ.

Oh, and did I mention that he was joined by Bob Gibson, the reigning MVP and Cy Young from the National League, in his encore?

No, really.



I love the internet. Your move, Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb.

Brandon Webb goes for what would be a major league leading nine wins tonight at home against the Colorado Rockies. First of all, nine wins on May 15 would be absolutely insane. As it stands today though, regardless of the outcome, he is on pace for a 30+ win season. Obviously that's not possible.

Well, actually, it's possible. But it is certainly unlikely. Vegas Watch did the math on the possibility that Webb gets 30 wins this season. Bear in mind that is something that was done a lot back in the day (147 times before 1920). However, it's only been pulled off three times since 1920, the latest by Denny McLain, with 31 wins in 1968.

Denny McClain is a lot of things: a Hall of Famer, the last pitcher to win 30 games in a season, a convict, a recovering alcoholic ... and these days, a blogger. The former Tigers pitcher is now writing for the Britannica Blog, where he touched upon the Josh Hancock tragedy by looking at how players treated alcohol in his heyday:

Our '68 team had a number of heavy drinkers and several who were serious problem drinkers. In fact, Norm Cash, my roommate Ray Oyler, and our manager, Mayo Smith, all died prematurely and all three were alcoholics. The best place to get high on booze was a Major League clubhouse.

But the clubhouse wasn't the only place to enjoy some post-game hijinks ...

When I was a rookie on the Tigers, we were traveling on a DC-6, a four-engine propeller airplane and the First Class section of the plane was in the rear, away from coaches, managers, and others who didn't need to know. The section had a round card table and a couch around it for about six guys and a United Airlines blanket. Many a willing stewardess found her way under the blanket with one of her drunken sporting heroes. You would be shocked at who made their way under the blanket.

Good times were had by many, and "United" was certainly an appropriate name for our plane because there was a fair amount of "uniting" going on thanks to the lowering of inhibitions due to alcohol.

So ... yeah. I bet you weren't expecting to read about a good ol' fashioned mile-high orgy today, were you? Not to be lost in the humor of McLain's post is his actual point, that alcohol can be a very dangerous drug, one that cost him the lives of not only some former teammates but also his daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver. But if it takes a little sex to spice up the message to make sure people actually hear it, it's fine by me.

(via master equestrian Dan Steinberg at the D.C. Sports Bog, courtesy of Ballhype)

Former Tigers pitcher, and the last man to win 30 games in a season, Denny McLain is angry. That much is obvious to anybody who has read his new autobiography I Told You I Wasn't Perfect, written with Eli Zaret.

It's the third autobiography McLain has written about his life, proving that he loves himself just as much as he hates everybody else. To be fair, McLain says a lot of negative things about himself in the book but saves some of his harshest criticisms for his teammates from the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers.

On Hall of Famer Al Kaline:

"As respectfully as I can say about a Hall of Fame player, Kaline wasn't the most loved SOB in the clubhouse, and we did win the pennant without him. Our guys resented Kaline for turning down a $100,000 salary when Jim Campbell offered to put him on par with the top players in the game. While the media played him up as a hero for being so modest, we all knew that it cost us serious dough."

On Tigers manager Mayor Smith:

"Mayo drank so much that it usually took him three or four innings to sober up and get his head into the game."

McLain also has some words for his fellow pitcher Mickey Lolich, whom he once left in Washington D.C. after the 1969 All-Star Game.

"Overwhelmingly jealous. I was the last guy he wanted to see win 30 games."

"What a (expletive) baby, that Lolich. There are a thousand flights a day from Washington to Detroit. The league paid for his first-class transportation back to Detroit, and Mickey should have kept his mouth shut."

I would say something about what an A-hole McLain seems to be, but frankly I find the fact that he's so bitter about all of this 40 years after it happened to be incredibly sad, and I kind of feel sorry for him.