#210 Denny McLain

What would have been a historic baseball career at the time in a free fall ..... and took his new found franchise with him..... So effective, superior at winning games in his prime....Despite a sometime awkwardly looking appearance McClain likened himself as baseball’s answer to Frank Sinatra, a power player, a singer, a free spender, an associate with gambling and the mob.... after two partial season came into limelight in 1965 with 16-6 record, followed by a 20 wins campaign....after a middling 1967 McClain became the superlative AL pitcher in the year of the, 1968...accrued a now unapproachable 31 wins....maybe the last person to so, hitting .400 may be more obtainable....accomplishment somewhat overshadowed by Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA.... McClain was the first pitcher to reach this plateau in 34 years....It was based on is mostly going deep into games, incredible endurance, and several late inning comebacks...AKA luck....Took MVP and Cy Young honors...Follows up with 24 wins becoming a co-winner of the Cy Young with Mike Cuellar...All is great until 1970....The 1971 blog:

http://topps1971.blogspot.com/2018/02/no-750-denny-mclain.html 

tells the series of unfortunate events best in the Who is the man section....with the long layoff is reduced effectiveness....Enter the Washington Senators looking for enhanced starting pitching plus gate appeal trade to Detroit the left side of their infield plus two pitcher for Denny...outcome: McClain's W-L record inverses to 10-22 mark...addition Senator's record and attendance degrades (Tiger become resurgent again and one pitcher Joe Coleman goes on to win 20-19-23 games in succession)....late in the year owner Bob Short gets the go-ahead to move to Texas...early in 1972 spring season is acquired by Oakland thinking he'd respond best by not having the pressure of being 1st starter...After one good outing is hit hard over 4 more games...McClain is bartered to Atlanta with no improvement....demotion and then outright release to minor league club squad did not result in a comeback...playing days were over before age 30....McClain has become a baseball pariah since this time with full conviction and imprisonments...released he now makes a living off appearances base on his past laurels al la Pete Rose...a shame.