Denny McLain writes another book - takes potshots at former teammates
Michigan
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BY BILL McGRAW
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Denny McLain has written another book. It’s about himself, of course. McLain admits he’s a narcissist.
It’s his third autobiography. That might seem excessive, but if you had led a life like the Pepsi-swilling, airplane-flying, organ-playing McLain, if you had done things like win 20 games while working as a bookie during the 1967 pennant race, or become the last major leaguer to win 30 games while saying Detroit fans are the worst in baseball, or get sentenced to federal prison — twice — then you could write three books about yourself, too.
“I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect,” (Triumph Books), co-written with local sports journalist Eli Zaret, follows “Nobody’s Perfect,” (1975), with Dave Diles, and “Strikeout: The Story of Denny McLain,” by McLain and Mike Nahrstedt (1988).
While the new book traces McLain’s life from receiving childhood beatings from his dad to sucking up to John Gotti Jr. in prison, it also is sure to raise eyebrows among Tiger fans for the way McLain flays some of his teammates from the 1968 championship team. That was almost 40 years ago, but McLain’s wounds still seem raw.
McLain knocks Al Kaline for slamming his bat into the rack and injuring himself in the middle of the ’68 pennant race. Some of the players, and even manager Mayo Smith, McLain says, didn’t think Kaline should have started the World Series.
“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,” McLain writes. “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.”
McLain calls Jim Price, the Tiger broadcaster, a butt-kisser, “back-stabbing (expletive)” and “one of the laziest, most untalented guys I’d ever seen in the major leagues.”
The late Smith, the Tigers 1968 manager: “Mayo drank so much that it usually took him three or four innings to sober up and get his head into the game.”
Mickey Lolich? “Overwhelmingly jealous,” McLain writes. “I was the last guy he wanted to see win 30 games.”
Even many hard-core baseball fans have forgotten the incident in which McLain, in his private plane, left Lolich stranded at the 1969 All Star game in Washington. McLain remembers. He brings up how Lolich complained about the slight to reporters.
Writes McLain: “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.”
McLain even gets in a poke at Erma Bombeck, the late humor columnist. Erma Bombeck? He slams her for being a boring guest on his radio show.
McLain can be hard on himself, too.
He talks about his struggle with alcohol and his popping “greenies” as a Tiger and, after discussing his three suspensions in 1970, he writes that he lacked maturity and admits that he allowed himself to get involved with gamblers. “And I bragged and used my on-field success to bend all the rules and alienate my teammates. I’d flaunted all of it by being a big shot and buying an airplane. And now that I couldn’t pitch well anymore, guys like Freehan and Price wanted to see me get what I deserve.”
McLain claims his penchant for trouble stems from the constant punishment he received as a child: “My dad had been dead for 10 years, but I kept on symbolically getting the belt even though it was no longer Tom McLain wielding it.”
By 1980, long out of baseball, McLain got involved with a fast crowd in Florida. Before he knew it, he was dealing with people who called $100 bills “Benjis” — for Benjamin Franklin — and talking about cutting off people’s ears.
In 1985, he was convicted of racketeering, extortion and possession of 6.6 pounds of cocaine. It was reversed two years later, and McLain quickly started a new gig— playing the organ at a suburban bar at which former heavyweight boxer Leon Spinks was the bartender. Eventually, McLain made a successful comeback as a morning radio host on WXYT-AM (1270).
A decade later, after the searing experience of burying his daughter, Kristin, after she died in a traffic accident, he was back in federal court. A jury convicted him of raiding the pension fund at Peet Packing Co. in Chesaning. “It’s obvious that buying this company was insane. But this was my fatal flaw — twisting the truth to mean whatever served my mood at the moment,” he writes.
He also blames his conviction partly on a lying witness, plus his lawyer’s wooziness from taking pain medication.
Once on the cover of Time magazine, McLain worked at a Sterling Heights 7-Eleven after his release from prison in 2003. Today he works in the telcom business and lives in Livingston County.
“My comeback is still under construction,” he writes. “I’m doing the best I can, but I’m still not as good as I need to get…”
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Denny McLain has written another book. It’s about himself, of course. McLain admits he’s a narcissist.
It’s his third autobiography. That might seem excessive, but if you had led a life like the Pepsi-swilling, airplane-flying, organ-playing McLain, if you had done things like win 20 games while working as a bookie during the 1967 pennant race, or become the last major leaguer to win 30 games while saying Detroit fans are the worst in baseball, or get sentenced to federal prison — twice — then you could write three books about yourself, too.
“I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect,” (Triumph Books), co-written with local sports journalist Eli Zaret, follows “Nobody’s Perfect,” (1975), with Dave Diles, and “Strikeout: The Story of Denny McLain,” by McLain and Mike Nahrstedt (1988).
While the new book traces McLain’s life from receiving childhood beatings from his dad to sucking up to John Gotti Jr. in prison, it also is sure to raise eyebrows among Tiger fans for the way McLain flays some of his teammates from the 1968 championship team. That was almost 40 years ago, but McLain’s wounds still seem raw.
McLain knocks Al Kaline for slamming his bat into the rack and injuring himself in the middle of the ’68 pennant race. Some of the players, and even manager Mayo Smith, McLain says, didn’t think Kaline should have started the World Series.
“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,” McLain writes. “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.”
McLain calls Jim Price, the Tiger broadcaster, a butt-kisser, “back-stabbing (expletive)” and “one of the laziest, most untalented guys I’d ever seen in the major leagues.”
The late Smith, the Tigers 1968 manager: “Mayo drank so much that it usually took him three or four innings to sober up and get his head into the game.”
Mickey Lolich? “Overwhelmingly jealous,” McLain writes. “I was the last guy he wanted to see win 30 games.”
Even many hard-core baseball fans have forgotten the incident in which McLain, in his private plane, left Lolich stranded at the 1969 All Star game in Washington. McLain remembers. He brings up how Lolich complained about the slight to reporters.
Writes McLain: “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.”
McLain even gets in a poke at Erma Bombeck, the late humor columnist. Erma Bombeck? He slams her for being a boring guest on his radio show.
McLain can be hard on himself, too.
He talks about his struggle with alcohol and his popping “greenies” as a Tiger and, after discussing his three suspensions in 1970, he writes that he lacked maturity and admits that he allowed himself to get involved with gamblers. “And I bragged and used my on-field success to bend all the rules and alienate my teammates. I’d flaunted all of it by being a big shot and buying an airplane. And now that I couldn’t pitch well anymore, guys like Freehan and Price wanted to see me get what I deserve.”
McLain claims his penchant for trouble stems from the constant punishment he received as a child: “My dad had been dead for 10 years, but I kept on symbolically getting the belt even though it was no longer Tom McLain wielding it.”
By 1980, long out of baseball, McLain got involved with a fast crowd in Florida. Before he knew it, he was dealing with people who called $100 bills “Benjis” — for Benjamin Franklin — and talking about cutting off people’s ears.
In 1985, he was convicted of racketeering, extortion and possession of 6.6 pounds of cocaine. It was reversed two years later, and McLain quickly started a new gig— playing the organ at a suburban bar at which former heavyweight boxer Leon Spinks was the bartender. Eventually, McLain made a successful comeback as a morning radio host on WXYT-AM (1270).
A decade later, after the searing experience of burying his daughter, Kristin, after she died in a traffic accident, he was back in federal court. A jury convicted him of raiding the pension fund at Peet Packing Co. in Chesaning. “It’s obvious that buying this company was insane. But this was my fatal flaw — twisting the truth to mean whatever served my mood at the moment,” he writes.
He also blames his conviction partly on a lying witness, plus his lawyer’s wooziness from taking pain medication.
Once on the cover of Time magazine, McLain worked at a Sterling Heights 7-Eleven after his release from prison in 2003. Today he works in the telcom business and lives in Livingston County.
“My comeback is still under construction,” he writes. “I’m doing the best I can, but I’m still not as good as I need to get…”
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Comments
What a crock.....coming from Denny McLain, need we say more? He is a pathilogical liar !!!
Mayo Smith didn't want Kaline to play? Are you s********g me? Why does he think he
brought in Mickey Stanley from centerfield to play shortstop during the world series of 68?
To get Kaline in the outfield ! Ok, I might be oversensitive to the Kaline issue, but this piece
of crap hasn't a clue what he is talking about ! Kaline blamed himself for many of the issues
of the 67 race that the Tigers lost. He slammed his bat into the rack in 68 because he was
pi****d off at himself for striking out in a crucial game situation. He was out for 6 weeks.
To top it all off, he won 31 games in 68 the first since the 30's and the last ever since. Well,
he won most of those games because those same teammates that he likes to bash around
in so many misguided words, pulled his FAT A** out of trouble, because he was behind in
many of the games he ended up winning! He should be grateful for that magical team that
gave him a ring...HEY DENNY ! Remember, Mickey was 3-0 in the World Series, and you
were....uh...lets see ..... nowhere to be found when it counted! YOU SUCKED IN THE
WORLD SERIES!
And to think at one time, I actually felt sorry for you! Crawl back into your hole Denny!
Whew, now I feel better !
Tony
"KalineFan"
I don't think that tour has been written about ... what would Wshington be without McLain?
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