Over the summer Denny McClain made a stop at a Chas Riverdogs game to sign and sell copies of his new book, I Told You I Wasn't Perfect. I'll review the book later on. McClain seemed like a nice enough guy, but the book really complicated that picture. At any rate, let's say I did a lot more reading about him this summer than I otherwise would have. The night of the game I was simply excited to meet the game's last 30-game winner with my dad, who reared me on stories of McClain's '68 season. Somehow the quick flameout thereafter never came up, but I digress.
I had to place an emergency COMC order to land this card since I called virtually every card shop in driving distance that I knew of and all of them said they had no Denny McClain cards. I then took a trip to the local (30 minutes away!) and, lo and behold, there were a few of these hiding out. I ended up with 4 of them and gave some away to the kids with me in line who had no McClain cards. Anyway, it's a great 1970 addition to my Topps All-Time Project.
McClain was sensational back in the day, something that gets overshadowed by the 30-game-winner memory and, well, lots of other things. 9 Shutouts is insane.
Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!
Met him last fall at White Plains. Seeing what a friendly, charming guy he is made a lot about the many chances he's gotten in life fall into place.
ReplyDeleteVery cool auto to snag. I'll be interested to hear about the book. You know, any time you need a Tigers card for a situation like this, you could always shoot me an email with an emergency request.
ReplyDeleteThe auto looks great on the card.
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