Denny McLain had a meteoric rise to success in the major leagues, and an even more sudden plummet to the depths. He won 20 games as a 22-year-old in 1966, and in 1968 became baseball's last 30 game winner. He had another AL win title in 1969, but lost most of 1970 due to suspensions for gambling and for carrying a gun on a team plane. He was traded to the Senators in 1971, openly feuded with manager, Ted Williams, and lost a league leading 22 games. A year later he was out of baseball at the age of 28. Overall in 280 games McLain went 131-91 with a 3.39 ERA. After his career he was involved in numerous illegal activities and served jail time for cocaine trafficking, embezzlement and racketeering. In the past 15 years he has managed to stay out of legal trouble, and currently is involved in sports radio, magazine columns, and podcasts.
I have 14 of his cards, from 1965 to 1973. I would be interested in trading for 1966 Topps #540 and 1971 Topps #750.
Whoa. He's had quite the roller coaster ride over the years. Glad to know he's cleaned things up.
ReplyDeleteAs a Tiger fan, his checkered past is pretty well known and legendary. But my young daughters and I ran into him at a big card show in Philly a couple years ago, he had a “direct access” table but it wasn’t well promoted. He spent maybe 20 minutes playing with them like a typical Grandpa, taking pictures and telling stories. It’ll live on as one of my best baseball memories.
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