I Told You I Wasn't Perfect

Denny McLain was the last 30-game winner in Major League Baseball by notching a remarkable 31-6 record in 1968, while capturing the American League's MVP and Cy Young awards as a member of the World Series-winning Detroit Tigers. Four years later and at the age of 28, he was out of pro ball and briefly played in an obscure league based in Canada. And this is where the story really begins. McLain - with Detroit sportscaster and co-author Eli Zaret - cover the highlights of a baseball career that flamed out due to arm problems and personal drama, while giving his side of a number of oftentimes sordid tales that include allegations of bookmaking and mob ties, being suspended twice in one season by MLB, two stints in prison - one conviction was overturned on appeal - hustling golf on a variety of courses, working in the sports media and being an accomplished organist with a pair of albums released on Capitol Records. The book parallels a FOX Sports special from several years ago - it still airs on an infrequent basis - that gave McLain a forum to tell his story. And as with the cable-TV program, the book is McLain's pitching mound to deliver flaming fastballs at his critics and prosecutors with the brashness that carried him to the summit of pro baseball....before he threw it all away while chasing other games in the deepest shadows of life.

It was most interesting to realize once again that no matter how high a star athlete rises in life, he or she suffer human frailties as everyday people. Denny McClain is a fine example. Little did I know that ,during my growing up years when Denny was one of my heroes, his life was unravelling off the field.

I am a sports fanatic, and have read "literally" hundreds of sports books over the last decade or so. This autobiography has much more in it than a normal sports fan would expect. Sure, it has his baseball history, which shows him as perhaps the first "modern day", totally spoiled, self-possessed, spoiled brat, baseball star, who took advantage of the media's growing fascination with spoiled, rich ballplayers. He admittedly let his mouth run wild as his fame grew. Alienating, not only his teammates, but also, all "old school" players, executives, and fans. (Me!) The beginning of the book, which traces his abusive childhood, up to his making the major leagues, leads us to the information that I already knew and expected: The last player to win 30 games in a season, (31 in 1968), the youngest player in major league history (At that time.) to win 100 games, (25 years old.) being suspended from baseball for gambling. Interesting, but old ground. Here is where his trouble really begins, and it seems like it takes forever, for Denny to realize he's the problem, not everyone else. Here's where this book became absolutely fascinating to me, and became way more than your every day baseball book! When Denny went to federal prison, he describes in agonizing, claustrophobic, detail, what it's really like to be in federal prison, not a country club prison. What I tell you next is the absolute truth! A couple of times while I was engrossed in the portions of the book of what he went through, in his tiny, cramped cell, I actually got out a tape measure twice, and measured the size of my bed, to compare it to the cell he was in. To me this book is much more than a baseball book, it is also a "scared-straight" story. This is a story of success and arrogance gone astray. Denny went from 31 wins in a season and back to back Cy Young Awards, to Federal Prison, sharing a cell block with Gotti Jr., and innumerable de-humanizing body searches. I not only recommend this book highly; I feel it should be mandatory reading for every rookie entering the Major Leagues!

Good read - lots of great stories. I think there's "a little Denny Mclain" in all of us. I recommend it for all sports fans.