THE DOWNFALL OF A PHENOM

June 13, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The baseball newsletter that delivers you daily stories juicier than a triple cheeseburger.

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Today's story is about an incredibly talented ballplayer that lost his way and squandered his opportunity to become a superstar.

Denny McLain was the last pitcher that won 30 games in a season.

His ‘68 season is still regarded as one of the most dominant performances by a pitcher in the modern era.

Let me put it this way.

That year, Bob Gibson and McLain were so good that MLB had to lower the mounds in subsequent seasons because fans were getting “tired of so many pitcher’s duels.”

Basically, the hitters could touch these guys.

Along with his Cy Young, McLain got himself a World Series that year.

Then he came back in '69 and won another Cy Young award.

McLain had everything going for him, but in 1970, everything went to shit.

Sports Illustrated put Denny on the cover and exposed him for investing in a bookmaking operation, which also had investors from the Syrian Mob.

Apparently, the "business" imploded when one of their clients won $46,000 on a horse racing bet and they couldn’t come up with the money.

The guy tracked down McLain and dislocated his toes as retaliation.

The league suspended Denny half a season due to the incident.

But it didn’t stop there.

When he came back, he got suspended again for dumping ice water on reporters and bringing a gun on the team plane.

It was pretty much all downhill from there.

In '71 he gained a ton of weight.

According to McLain, he was drinking 24 bottles of Pepsi per day.

Naturally, he lost 22 games that year.

The next season, he posted a 6.37 ERA.

After that, no one wanted to touch him with a 10-foot pole.

At 28, four years after throwing one of the greatest seasons of all-time, Denny McLain was washed up.

In his post-playing days, McLain has been almost as good at getting arrested as he was at pitching back in ‘68.

He’s served prison time for racketeering, drug dealing, embezzlement, and fraud.

More than anything, it's sad to see someone with such a promising career end up this way, but it's also a cautionary tale to keep your house in order.

ONE QUICK QUESTION

Today I was thinking about ballplayer who should be in the Hall of Fame, but aren’t for some reason.

Not players that were linked to PED’s, but guys like Jim Edmonds, Jeff Kent, Dick Allen, Johan Santana, and Thurman Munson.

Curious who comes to mind for you? Chime In!

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

When James Hannah aka “Truck” made his debut for the Yankees back in 1918, he was the first-ever big leaguer from North Dakota.

Although he only played three years in the MLB, he had an extensive minor league career, and even managed a bit.

He is a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

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