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THE LITTLE LEGEND
Good evening. This is Dead Legends. HUGE CONGRATS to Louis Lappe and the Little League team from El Segundo on their big win yesterday.
THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF!
A walk-off to win the #LLWS Championship 🙌
— Little League (@LittleLeague)
9:37 PM • Aug 27, 2023
Let’s dive in.
Today’s story is about a former major leaguer who first made a name for himself in Williamsport.
They don’t call Lloyd McClendon “Legendary Lloyd” for nothing.
Over his eight-year big league career, he had over 1200 AB’s and played for the Reds, Cubs, and Pirates.
But that’s not really what he’s most known for.
McClendon was part of the team from Gary, Indiana that made it to the Little League World Series in 1971.
The team ultimately lost in the finals to Taiwan, but that’s not saying much, because Taiwan literally beat everyone.
They were also exposed later on to be running a huge state-sponsored cheating program that was pretty gnarly.
But the big story of that ‘71 tournament was McClendon going yard five times in five swings.
He literally hit a home run every time he swung the bat, and was intentionally walked in every other AB.
In the quarterfinals, Gary dropped two bombs against Kentucky and drew an intentional walk.
Then in the semis, McClendon launched two more dingers and drew yet another intentional walk.
Before the Title Game, Taiwan was talking a whole lotta shit.
Basically, they said that they’d rather lose than walk Lloyd - it was a matter of pride for them.
That changed after the first inning when Lloyd went deep and put three runs on the board - the next two AB’s he got walked.
The game went nine innings - McClendon pitched the first eight and racked up 12 K’s - but ultimately, the boys from Gary took the L.
Here’s the heartbreaking part: Lloyd was on deck with two runners on when the final out was made.
BEATING THE ODDS
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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:
Michael “King” Kelly is a super OG, and he was a baseball pioneer in a lot of ways.
He managed in three different professional leagues during the late 1800s - The National League, Player’s League, and the American Association.
He was also the first ballplayer to:
Write an autobiography
Have a hit song written about him
Have a successful acting career outside the game.
Plus, the guy had a killer mustache.
THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE
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