TIGERS RESCUED DETROIT, 1968

 

Not always easy to give time up for a documentary, but I liked this one, mostly just to see footage of Denny McLain pitching.  The documentary was referenced in this article.  In 1968, he went 31-6 and was the only pitcher since 1934 [a reference to Dizzy Dean of the Cardinals] to win 30 games in a season.  As stellar a season 1968 was for McLain, he lost 2 games in the '68 World Series to none other than Bob Gibson, 22-9 that year with a cool ERA of 1.12.  Talk about dominance.  Whenever I read that Gibson and the Cardinals were coming to LA to play the Dodgers, it didn't matter which pitcher Alston put up against him--Drysdale or Sutton or Osteen--Gibson's dominance never failed to cause me dread.  It's not like I ever saw televised games of the Tigers; it was more that I tracked McLain and the Tigers in the LA Times and the Herald Examiner.  At school, the magazine we seized in the library and shelled out $.75 for at liquor stores was Sports Illustrated.  On Denver road trips, I often paired SI with Mad Magazine for the 1,000-mile journey.  Loved Sports Illustrated; used to do their crossword puzzles.  Anyway, in 1968, McLain was this adolescent's hero.  

Didn't hurt to hear in the documentary some of my other favorite names growing up either, guys like Mickey Lolich, Norm Cash, and Al Kaline along with Willie Horton, whose slugging percentage ranked second in the American League behind Frank Howard's.  Where McLain went 31-6 that year, Lolich, no slouch himself, went 17-9 with a 3.19 ERA.  

I recall Dick McAuliffe too, who "tied a Major League record by going the entire 1968 season without grounding into a double play."  Anyway, thought you might enjoy the documentary.