The Last Man To Have Ever Won 30 Games. And Why I Didn't Want To Hear About The Mick Again.

Witucki’s stepson, a young man I’ve literally watched grow up, is now a sharp-tongued 19-year-old. “I guess it wasn’t such a smart idea to start a sports podcast this year, huh?” 

We were feeling quite proud of ourselves though - very Westendorfian, if you will. But how do you create and continue to do a show when your subject matter comes to a screeching halt? 

Not only did the entire world stop, but all of our pleasant distractions stopped too. Including sportsball. So, needless to say, it got tough coming up with things to talk about. Really tough.

Now we had no choice. We had to get creative.

Denny McLain is the last man to have won 30 games in Major League Baseball. He was the first to do it since Dizzy Dean. He won two Cy Young awards, a World Series and an MVP along with 55 wins all in the span of two years. Can you imagine what he could have achieved if only he didn’t have the same disposition as a mouthy 19-year-old? 

Youth, arrogance, naivete and straight-up rawness all played a role in Denny’s ultimate downfall. Whatever the case, and whatever people might say about him - he saved our asses. Denny McLain was quick in granting us time for an interview. Witucki and I could not have been more hyped or nervous about the situation. This was our first “celebrity” interview. Except he didn’t act like a celebrity at all. 

As if we weren’t nervous enough, our interview kept getting pushed back. McLain had already cancelled on us the week prior because he was having friends over for dinner and that seemed like more fun than talking to us. I can’t blame him. Why would a Detroit sports legend want to talk to a couple nobodies from Midland, Michigan?

There was nothing in it for McLain, really. And that’s why I was nervous. He could no-show completely, dick us around or beat us up as much as he wanted. And we’d have to take it. And there wasn’t a thing we could about it - just pretend like we weren’t bothered, be courteous, reschedule, go with his flow. Be courteous, reschedule, yes sir, and wait. Be courteous, wait for the next excuse, reschedule, repeat.

Poor Andy was getting sick of sending Zoom invitations to the guy. At one point, McLain joined one of our scheduled meetings while he was driving. We were positive we were going to witness the man’s death, as he held the steering wheel with one hand and his phone with the other. Finally, he realized how dangerous he was being. “Boys, why don’t we try this again and reschedule for about 45 minutes from now when I get home? I almost ran into the back of a semi.”

Andy sent another invite out. We waited, we sweated, and he didn’t respond. I called him. “Yeah, I just got home, give me about 15 minutes to get settled in and we’ll do this thing.”  

We didn’t think we could get more frustrated or impatient with a guest we really wanted to talk to. And yet, we were so ready for this fuckin’ thing. 

Now, there's this awesome Mickey Mantle story Denny has about how in his own pursuit of winning 31 games in '68 and blowing out the Yankees one afternoon, he gifted Mantle his 535th career home run. It's a great story, super interesting, but it's been told at nausea. Every interview and at every card show the man has ever done (and I imagine every day since it's happened) he's had to re-tell that fucking story. And I'm sure he enjoys it, because he's a fan of Mantle himself. And that's fine. But I was determined to NOT ask him about it because, well, if anyone wants to hear that one they can just go look up ANY other video or interview on the internet of him talking about it. To me, it would've been redundant at best, just replicating other people's content; and self-indulgent at worst.  

By this time, in the midst of waiting, I can’t tell you how many times Andy and I looked at each other and casually agreed: I’m going to ask him whatever I want.

And we did.

Once we finally got the man on a video call and kicked out the typical technical kinks, we got to talking. And he could’ve hung up on us at any time, but to his credit, he didn’t. He was honest, deflected a little, but he addressed everything we threw at him. 

We asked him about his beefs with Mickey Lolich and Ted Williams, the current state of the Tigers, what the country has been going through. He obliged and answered everything we asked. 

It wasn’t until well after the conversation that I went bragging to friends that I got to interview Denny McLain… and it wasn’t until that time that people started asking me, “did you ask him about Farmer Pete, in the Chesaning area? He screwed him over pretty bad…”

I felt stupid for not knowing about this while conducting the interview. I looked it up. Apparently there was a failing meat packing company in our area that Denny and a business partner in the Detroit area had taken over to try to revive - but there was just no hope. So when it failed, McLain and his partner were accused of stealing the pension funds of the workers as a buyout for themselves. 

''Everything was done to enhance the value of the corporation,'' Mr. McLain said in a NY Times interview back in 1996. ''Shame on us that it didn't work out as well as we had hoped. There were some rules out there we weren't aware of. I don't know what that makes us.''

I had been reading his book Strikeout in the course of prepping for the interview, and it read like fiction. It read the same way he talked though - very frank, raw, but always, always, ALWAYS blaming someone else for his problems. Like watching an accident, all you could do is fold your arms and keep reading. 

When it was time for our interview, you could tell the man was a pro. Most likely a sociopath, he was unapologetic. He was fine with retreading some of these stories or deflecting questions, because in his mind (and at his age) there wasn’t much more he could be indicted for.   

Fast forward to a few weeks later. McLain was having a public estate sale at his home in Wixom. Andy couldn’t go, but I made the drive out there on a rainy Sunday during the first weekend of October 2020. By this time, most of his collection had been depleted.

I had a ‘68 World Series ticket I had picked up at a garage sale and I wanted him to sign it. Fearing that this might be one of the last living interactions I may ever have with the guy, I wanted to make the trip and experience the home of an aging major leaguer I had been so intrigued with for so many years. 

McLain has a reputation for being the best inscription artist in all of sports - along with his signature, he will inscribe literally ALL of his best stats on whatever you ask him to sign for no additional cost. I decided to get him to sign two “stat balls,” my ticket, and an outtake of the ‘68 team photo where he and John Hiller are flipping the bird in the back row. 

I also wanted to give him one of our business cards, though I don’t know what kind of reaction I was expecting. And even though I reminded and thanked him for doing a Zoom interview with my little no-name podcast… he couldn’t recall doing it. Even though we had recorded the show just a few weeks prior. “Would like me to sign this for you too?” He asked as I handed him the business card... I felt slightly embarrassed as he I told him that was for him to keep in case he ever wanted to get in touch with us or do our show again. 

I was proud of my take for the day: I had a ball signed for Andy, along with a vulgar team photo for his collection. My ball, however, was lacking all the classic inscriptions McLain usually included to fill all the white space of the ball. Even being a completest, I was still content with lack of a fully-inscribed stat ball for myself. I didn't want one just like Andy's, but I also didn't want another re-telling of the Mantle story.

The white space on the ball is glaring, but that's okay with me. It’s a bit of a timestamp… he’s done. He’s tired. He’s ready to move into a small home and go quietly into the night. He’s given as much as he can and we probably won’t see too many more public appearances from the last man to win 30 games in a season. Depending on how long this plague lasts anyway.