Speaker 1: Welcome back to the X Earning postgame Show with Bill Ask.
Speaker 1: I'm delighted to bring a guest on. He pitched ten
Speaker 1: years in Major League baseball. He was a three time
Speaker 1: American League All Star, a World Series champion with the
Speaker 1: Detroit Tigers in nineteen sixty eight, American League Most Valuable
Speaker 1: Player in sixty eight, two time Alcy Young. Let's bring
Speaker 1: in Denny McLain. Denny, how are you today?
Speaker 2: I'm fine, Billy? How are you pel?
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Thanks for joining me, and what a
Speaker 1: great career you had in ten years. But the game
Speaker 1: has changed for pitching, and I want to talk about
Speaker 1: complete games. You were just fabulous at it, one hundred
Speaker 1: and five complete games in ten years. The mindset was
Speaker 1: different back then, Denny, How did you prepare for a
Speaker 1: game and how did you get through nine innings?
Speaker 2: Well? It just was expected of us. I mean it
Speaker 2: was that simple. And you know back then, if you
Speaker 2: did not keep your end of the bargain up, you
Speaker 2: weren't going to be there very long because they owned
Speaker 2: everything at that time, you know, all the players, all
Speaker 2: the shoes, all the spikes, all the half I mean
Speaker 2: everything they owned, and so you had very few choices
Speaker 2: about trying to get out of there. But and you
Speaker 2: know what, it drives you. I'm going to say it
Speaker 2: drives you to drink. But it drives you to drink
Speaker 2: in a sense because you know every time you go
Speaker 2: out there, your job is on the line. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not like you could go out there for four
Speaker 2: or five. It starts at five innings apiece, and let's
Speaker 2: say three out of the five you got the poop
Speaker 2: scared out of you and knocked out of the game.
Speaker 2: I mean, that didn't happen back then. If a guy
Speaker 2: didn't have his stuff, the manager would come out and
Speaker 2: maybe lose a little temper and what have you, But
Speaker 2: nonetheless he would do what's necessary. For instance, it brings
Speaker 2: me to a real good story. It's all about bunning.
Speaker 2: It's all about hitting. It's all about hitting and running,
Speaker 2: running and hitting. Hit the cutoff man. Where the hell
Speaker 2: are the people that used to teach this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, fundamentals of the game, that's what you're talking about, Denny,
Speaker 1: The fundamentals of just kind of seconds.
Speaker 2: Right, And Billy, I'm telling you what we don't. I'll
Speaker 2: bet in a month, in a month of ball games,
Speaker 2: I'll bet we don't hit twenty five percent of the
Speaker 2: cutoff man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the fundamental balu changed. And the same thing about
Speaker 1: pitchers covering first base, turning to get a double play,
Speaker 1: feeling the ball on bunts, that's secondary. It wasn't priority
Speaker 1: when we pitched. But I want to go back when
Speaker 1: you started, Denny. You grew up in Illinois. You ended
Speaker 1: up going to Mount Carmel High School.
Speaker 2: I certainly did.
Speaker 1: Was there somebody that you looked at at the big
Speaker 1: league level? Was there somebody that you just wanted to
Speaker 1: watch all the time pitch?
Speaker 2: Well, yes, there was a guy by the name of
Speaker 2: Bob Rush. He was a pitcher with the Cubs at
Speaker 2: the time, and this is how he became my idol
Speaker 2: ice in my entire years of living in Chicago. We
Speaker 2: went to one baseball game. We didn't have any money,
Speaker 2: for God's sake, so you took your shots where you can.
Speaker 2: And my dad come home the night before and said, Hey,
Speaker 2: we're going to a ball game tomorrow. I said, Dad,
Speaker 2: how are we going to go to a ball game?
Speaker 2: I got to go to school, so you're not going
Speaker 2: to school tomorrow. You're going to see the Cubs. I said,
Speaker 2: Oh boy, oh boy, so we all jumped up and down.
Speaker 2: We got in the car the next day and went
Speaker 2: down to the ballpark, and the first couple of innings
Speaker 2: were not too exciting, but we were in the club.
Speaker 2: We're sitting there where we're look at all the players,
Speaker 2: all the pimples they got on their shed and their
Speaker 2: air in their ears, every other thing.
Speaker 1: Where you were at a major league game, that's something
Speaker 1: that you were excited about. Same thing when I grow
Speaker 1: that's right, and that you didn't have that many chances
Speaker 1: to go in. Of course, television wasn't every day like
Speaker 1: we see it now, but at once were like school,
Speaker 1: you played shortstop and you also pitched. And boy thirty
Speaker 1: eight and seven through your high school years, how'd you
Speaker 1: like playing shortstop?
Speaker 2: Well, my dad, I said, I had the worst hands
Speaker 2: in the history of mankind. My dad was not good
Speaker 2: for your courage. As a matter of fact, when I
Speaker 2: played in the Little League the first game of the season,
Speaker 2: it's the first game they'd never seen me play except
Speaker 2: in practice, and somebody said, we'll get McClean, he'll feel
Speaker 2: the ball for us and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 2: Whatever it was. So they got McClean and put McLean
Speaker 2: on first base and started hitting ground balls to him.
Speaker 2: This is an eight year old trying to catch a
Speaker 2: ground ball. And I can tell you that out of
Speaker 2: twenty five balls that were hit to me, I missed
Speaker 2: twenty not a great breakthrough.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't good. Get him off the infield, my
Speaker 1: kid said.
Speaker 2: My dad said, I don't think we have to worry
Speaker 2: about it. But do you have a cup? I said,
Speaker 2: what do you need a cup for? You need coffee, tea?
Speaker 2: What do you need? He said, you don't know. I said,
Speaker 2: what do I know? I don't know what. I don't
Speaker 2: know what you know? And he said, well, you and
Speaker 2: I will have a little father and son talked tonight.
Speaker 2: I said okay. I said, so this's got something to
Speaker 2: do with them and he said, yeah, kind of kind of,
Speaker 2: but he's going to do it at home. I said, okay.
Speaker 2: The next inning round ball is. You know, people hit
Speaker 2: hit the ball pretty hard if you just lay the
Speaker 2: bat out there. And this one kid was a left
Speaker 2: handed hitter, and he hit a rocket down the first baseline.
Speaker 2: A rocket is this first baseman can attest to and
Speaker 2: Lord about money. It almost ate my ass. It hit
Speaker 2: so hard that I recall and he didn't have a
Speaker 2: cup on. And guess what, Denny didn't have a cup
Speaker 2: on either, and then he took that right in the
Speaker 2: middle of the posts. Yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you learn the hard way, right daddy?
Speaker 2: It was, Yeah, but that's not all. Probably you're so
Speaker 2: embarrassed you don't know what to do. So what I
Speaker 2: did right away was I tried to adjust my belt
Speaker 2: and uh, that got the bigger hand than anything I've
Speaker 2: ever done in my life.
Speaker 1: Danny McLain joined me on the Extraity postgame show. You
Speaker 1: end up signing out of high school to the Chicago
Speaker 1: White Sox, and.
Speaker 2: I thought, yep, I graduated on a Friday night and
Speaker 2: signed on late Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1: And you end up posing the Appellationian League. And what
Speaker 1: do you did for the Harlan Smokies the first game
Speaker 1: you throw a no hitter and you punch out sixteen.
Speaker 1: I guess the White Sox said, I guess we signed
Speaker 1: somebody pretty damn good because that was a nice start
Speaker 1: by you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said, he said, congratulations, Well that was some start,
Speaker 2: some starting out. He said, how you go out there
Speaker 2: the next time? Let's do the same thing. I said,
Speaker 2: can you do this twice in a row. He said,
Speaker 2: yes you can, and you're going to do that.
Speaker 1: When you first started getting into high school, what were
Speaker 1: some of the pictures you threw. I know you threw
Speaker 1: hard as a fastball. Did you have the curveball yet?
Speaker 2: I did not throw a curveball until I got to
Speaker 2: the big leagus. I didn't throw anything but a fastball,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a change up, but no. My
Speaker 2: dad made it very clear to me that if I
Speaker 2: ever try to throw a curveball or a slider before
Speaker 2: I'm eighteen or nineteen years old, he would make sure
Speaker 2: that I would go back to the plant with him
Speaker 2: and work on the steel products. Wow, because no son
Speaker 2: of his was going to start throwing curveballs at fourteen
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 1: Well, in nineteen sixty three, Denny, it was kind of strange.
Speaker 1: I was reading about it. You get waved by the
Speaker 1: White Sox because they don't protect you. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what that meant. So the Tigers ended up picking you up.
Speaker 1: Explain that a little bit more in depth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened was, back in those days, you could
Speaker 2: only have with a man with a forty man roster.
Speaker 2: All you can have is forty You can't cheat and
Speaker 2: bubble him up. Someplace they did was we had three
Speaker 2: guys with me, the great Dave de Busher with the Pistons,
Speaker 2: and of course Detroit became the manager there and general
Speaker 2: manager for the Yankees. And then there's another guy who
Speaker 2: had a little bit of a breaking ball. And the
Speaker 2: butcher had graduated from college and the other kid had
Speaker 2: graduated from college. So they both had breaking balls, and
Speaker 2: Dave threw very, very hard, but it was flat. Is
Speaker 2: a piece of paper, I mean, and they could not
Speaker 2: get Dave to throw the ball the right way. So
Speaker 2: the first game of the season, this is an exhibition game,
Speaker 2: and our manager was the hell was his name, Jesus Kid? Anyway,
Speaker 2: he starts the game and he tells me and Bruce
Speaker 2: Howard who he was the third guy, Bruce Howard, and
Speaker 2: Bruce really a nice guy from South Carolina. The manager
Speaker 2: says to us, whoever wins this game stays with us.
Speaker 2: If you lose, you're going to be dumped into waivers.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what waivers meant at the time, anyway,
Speaker 2: I thought maybe it was a free meal or something.
Speaker 2: So we go out and the first pitch that I throw,
Speaker 2: first pitch he hit a ball. The ball may not
Speaker 2: have come down yet, I'm telling you, the ball went
Speaker 2: forever and ever and ever. And so now I'm down
Speaker 2: one run, right, one run, So right now I'm in
Speaker 2: the hole. So we go through the rest of the game.
Speaker 2: And that was the only run I gave up, the
Speaker 2: only thing that then Bruce Howard, he didn't give up
Speaker 2: anything except a couple of hits. So I get beat
Speaker 2: one to nothing. The general manager of the White Sox
Speaker 2: comes over and says, boy, great ball game. We really
Speaker 2: enjoyed watching that game, and I hope you'll do the
Speaker 2: same thing wherever you're going to go. I said, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, I said, I give up one, I give
Speaker 2: up one hitting. I'm out of here. He says, well,
Speaker 2: that was the deal, and he said, and it's got
Speaker 2: nothing to do with you and I. It's the management.
Speaker 2: This is what they want to do, and so let's
Speaker 2: let's just do it and get it over with because
Speaker 2: this is going to be a sad day.
Speaker 1: So well, it might have been a sad day that day,
Speaker 1: but it sure worked out well for you because you up.
Speaker 2: The best thing is, uh, the first game that I
Speaker 2: pitched in the big leagues, just to go back, just
Speaker 2: for a second. The first guy I pitched in that
Speaker 2: kind of a setting, Uh, I struck out. I threw
Speaker 2: a no, no, and uh and then and then in
Speaker 2: that game I also hit a home run. Uh. So
Speaker 2: I had quite quite the week that week. And it
Speaker 2: was just uh and the fact I said to our manager,
Speaker 2: I can't remember his whole name, but uh, Wally Wally Moses.
Speaker 2: And I said to Wally, I said, boy, this this
Speaker 2: you know, this game is easy. He said, what are
Speaker 2: you talking about? He said, he said, don't get cocky yet.
Speaker 2: You know you got to play tomorrow too. And I said,
Speaker 2: oh no, I said, I'm not trying to be cocky
Speaker 2: or anything, but I said that the all the pitch
Speaker 2: is that right there, all the field that's right there,
Speaker 2: no rocks, no garbage on the field. I said, I've
Speaker 2: never seen anything like this. So the beat one to nothing,
Speaker 2: and the next thing I know, I'm told that the
Speaker 2: Detroit Tigers have claimed the end waivers and that we
Speaker 2: have a quick conversation because there's nothing really to say.
Speaker 2: And the general manager of the Socks says, while, young man,
Speaker 2: I'm sure we're going to see you again. Just do
Speaker 2: what you do. What you do, and don't worry about
Speaker 2: anything else or anyone else. You just do what you
Speaker 2: did here today.
Speaker 1: Well it worked though, Denny and nine six years of
Speaker 1: hell where the Tigers put a brand new uniform, Monia.
Speaker 1: You went to the big league in sixty three at
Speaker 1: nineteen years old. When you were twenty years old. You
Speaker 1: ended up getting in nineteen games sixteen games started. And
Speaker 1: then in sixty five it started working out for you. You
Speaker 1: ended up being sixteen and six two points six earn
Speaker 1: run average. Twenty nine games started, we talked about it,
Speaker 1: thirteen complete games, four shutouts. Everything started working over two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty innings. You were consistent. So how did
Speaker 1: you become this so consistent at twenty one years old
Speaker 1: in the big leagues?
Speaker 2: Well, I got a couple of rules I'll tell you
Speaker 2: about for pitchers, And these are the most important rules
Speaker 2: that I ever had as a pitcher myself. And this
Speaker 2: is what Mima Dad used to tell me all the time.
Speaker 2: Number One, first pitch strike. Don't worry about it. First
Speaker 2: pitch strike, and that's it. Period. I don't want to
Speaker 2: hear anything else. And he says, never throw a curveball
Speaker 2: until you are physically able to do it. In other words,
Speaker 2: nobody coming out of high school at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen
Speaker 2: years old is going to be able to throw a
Speaker 2: real curveball because they don't have the build up yet.
Speaker 2: The body is still a child's body, that's right, and
Speaker 2: that takes some time. As you know. I mean, you
Speaker 2: were a pitcher. You did well, and the bottom line
Speaker 2: is that's what you have to have when the start
Speaker 2: the nut right, right, that's what you got to have.
Speaker 2: So truth so, and it's all about from the waist down.
Speaker 2: It's all about legs and butt. That's what it's about.
Speaker 2: And my dad preached that to me every day of
Speaker 2: the week. I mean, if we're having dinner, he's going
Speaker 2: to start talking about what happens when you got your
Speaker 2: cup on. Well.
Speaker 1: The other thing too, Denny, your physique was strength. Your
Speaker 1: legs were strong. You really had a nice body for
Speaker 1: a picture. I mean you your motion was fluent. The
Speaker 1: way you had to follow through everything was fluent. You
Speaker 1: threw strikes and that was the biggest thing that I
Speaker 1: remember watching you pitch back in the day. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty six, you made your first All Star team. You
Speaker 1: were twenty and fourteen. That year, two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: four and a third innings. These numbers don't lie the
Speaker 1: innings are there? Thirty eight starts? Now you're pushing every
Speaker 1: fifth day. How did you enjoy pitching on that? And
Speaker 1: how did you get your repertoire so consistent?
Speaker 2: Again, well, again, it's practice, practice practice. How do I
Speaker 2: get the Carnegie Hall practice? Practice practice? And you know,
Speaker 2: also I've got a music degree. If you didn't know
Speaker 2: that I do. And get that ladder, and that's that's
Speaker 2: my that's my that's my baby, because I've been playing
Speaker 2: that for seventy years and that was my fun. I
Speaker 2: mean that was fun. And then fortunately when you get
Speaker 2: the the exposure that I got once I won thirty,
Speaker 2: I mean we could do anything we wanted to with baseball.
Speaker 2: You know, you here for a dinner, some of you
Speaker 2: ask you all to dinner. Here, here, build a you know,
Speaker 2: they give you balls to sign, they give you everything.
Speaker 2: A little mixed up here, but I can tell you
Speaker 2: no matter what it was, it was available. In fact,
Speaker 2: when I won my thirtieth game, and this is the
Speaker 2: hardest one for me to say. After winning number thirty,
Speaker 2: eventually at the end of the year, I was given
Speaker 2: by General Motors, a brand new Cadillac Ford, a brand
Speaker 2: new T Bird and beautiful white Sex. Guys gave me
Speaker 2: a it was a t Bird of some kind. So anyway,
Speaker 2: they gave me three cars, all with titles, all ensured,
Speaker 2: the whole thing, and.
Speaker 1: Well you deserve them, Denny.
Speaker 2: You know you look at that.
Speaker 1: Let's look at nineteen sixty eight, thirty one and six.
Speaker 1: You're the last pitcher that's ever had thirty games. When
Speaker 1: you look at what happened in nineteen thirty four, Dizzy
Speaker 1: Dean did it with Saint Louis at thirty and seven,
Speaker 1: and even further than that, nineteen thirty one, thirty one
Speaker 1: and four, Lefty Grove did it that year. When you
Speaker 1: start dissecting what happened that year, and then numbers. When
Speaker 1: you started the month of April, you go too and
Speaker 1: out at one point nine you only had four starts.
Speaker 1: And the month of May you go six and one again,
Speaker 1: a great great month of May. June you go one again,
Speaker 1: and then everything starts clicking. Everybody's got eyes on Denny McClain,
Speaker 1: because in July you go seven and one, August you
Speaker 1: go five and two, and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a month of September comes around and thirty games is
Speaker 1: right in front of you, and you end up going
Speaker 1: five and one. And you ended up that year with
Speaker 1: thirty one and six thirty game winner. I'll never forget
Speaker 1: it in my life because I watched it. He also
Speaker 1: threw six shutouts, and that's something very impressive. Bill Freehan
Speaker 1: was your catcher. Bill Freeann was a very good communicator.
Speaker 1: Another another plus as a battery made what did you
Speaker 1: guys talk a lot alike? Did you guys get along?
Speaker 2: We were on the ninety percent of the time around
Speaker 2: the same page. I mean, he was the best catcher
Speaker 2: I ever pitched to. I pitched the Bench, I pitched
Speaker 2: the Casanova, Timmy McCarver, I pitched all of them. But
Speaker 2: I'm telling you there was only one Bill free in
Speaker 2: The guy was so insightful when it came to a game.
Speaker 2: He could tell you before the first inning is over
Speaker 2: with which guy took the last bathroom break. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you that's how good he was. He gave
Speaker 2: you everything you needed, and when you and you weren't
Speaker 2: doing so well, he would he would wait for the
Speaker 2: manager to come out, like they want to try to
Speaker 2: pull you out of the ball game. And then uh
Speaker 2: when they when they ask free in what kind of
Speaker 2: stuff does he have? What is it today? He's not
Speaker 2: he's not sharp. And then Mail Smith said, well, you
Speaker 2: know you're just off the hair. But so let's go back.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. I says, Okay, what part should we
Speaker 2: do because we're not doing any of the other parts
Speaker 2: very well? And he's and he says, uh, just start
Speaker 2: at the beginning, first pitch strike. I says, Oh, my
Speaker 2: father's back. I said, We're going to try some other things.
Speaker 2: That's the bottom The bottom line is pitching is repeating
Speaker 2: yourself time after time after time, and if you do that,
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry.
Speaker 1: Danny McClain joining me on the Externing postgame show. Johnny
Speaker 1: Saye was your pitching coach for many years Bets Detroit.
Speaker 1: And of course communication with your pitching coach, the sides
Speaker 1: and all the different grips and all the different work
Speaker 1: you did. What was some of the mental part of
Speaker 1: the game that he taught you, Well.
Speaker 2: He taught me, believe it or not. I never really
Speaker 2: had a good curve ball until Johnny came along. But
Speaker 2: when he came along. He also brought with him the
Speaker 2: Johnny Saint slider. And it wasn't a exciting pitch. I mean,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't bring the house down, standing up and what
Speaker 2: have you. But it was one of those pitches that
Speaker 2: I could get it over for a strike any time
Speaker 2: I wanted. I mean, I'll bet if you look at
Speaker 2: the record, I'll bet I missed maybe less than ten
Speaker 2: percent with that pitch. I mean, it was unbelievable how
Speaker 2: good it got me and three and two, two and
Speaker 2: two and two. It doesn't make any difference. That's the
Speaker 2: way it went. And except for the fact first pitch strike,
Speaker 2: I mean that's and if somebody was watching you from
Speaker 2: the other team, they certainly did not make a good
Speaker 2: attempt at it because I started everybody the same way everybody.
Speaker 2: And you know, here was the one thing. We used
Speaker 2: the percentage of deal on how many strikes on the
Speaker 2: first batter, And for two games we did that to
Speaker 2: kept the little record of it. And seventy percent of
Speaker 2: the first pitches and both ballgames were strikes.
Speaker 1: And that tells a big difference, doesn't it. It tells
Speaker 1: you a whole big difference about the pitcher.
Speaker 2: Kept you in the game. You were in the game
Speaker 2: for the very first pitch, and a lot of guys
Speaker 2: like to take that little break and think a deep
Speaker 2: breath once in a while. If you pitch well and
Speaker 2: you do it the right way, you don't have to
Speaker 2: worry about getting tired. You don't have to worry about
Speaker 2: anything else. Now, you got the entire circumference of your
Speaker 2: head in the ballgame, and I think that means more
Speaker 2: than anything else.
Speaker 1: Well, and that tells you a lot about your complete
Speaker 1: games because you got ahead of the hitters, you had
Speaker 1: less pitches per inning, you hit a one time, and
Speaker 1: that made that longevity go so far in your career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there was another thing you did, Denny. In your career,
Speaker 1: you were a pretty good defensive pitcher. We talked about
Speaker 1: fundamentals before. You only made thirteen errors in ten years.
Speaker 1: You know, some of those maybe been throwing it, only
Speaker 1: thrown a second base on a double play. What were
Speaker 1: some of the things that you gravitated to to make
Speaker 1: yourself a good defensive pitcher.
Speaker 2: Well, you know the game that you played before a
Speaker 2: game all the time with the button the ball back
Speaker 2: to three or four different guys. Pepper is a good game.
Speaker 2: It does a couple of things. You're working out, you're
Speaker 2: bending over a hundred times, you're doing everything that you
Speaker 2: could do working out, and then now you put the
Speaker 2: ball in play and you start hitting the ball a
Speaker 2: little bit harder, harder, and it's amazing how good you
Speaker 2: can become on that mound. And Jimmy Cott taught me
Speaker 2: part of that too.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about a couple of hitters
Speaker 1: that you did very well against. One was Mickey Mantle
Speaker 1: eight for thirty six, my idol and just at about
Speaker 1: two twenty. And then the other one was Harmon Killerbrew
Speaker 1: pitched very well against him, thirteen for sixty five, about
Speaker 1: two hundred very good hitters. How'd you work them and
Speaker 1: what did you do to get them out?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's this there's this myth running around
Speaker 2: in Major League baseball as well as some other probably
Speaker 2: college too. But the myth is this throw the ball
Speaker 2: back up third And I say that tongue in cheek,
Speaker 2: But what the bottom line becomes is that the pitcher
Speaker 2: has to take command of everything at any one time,
Speaker 2: strikes being the mandatory issue. And if you will allow
Speaker 2: the pitcher to control the game, you don't have to
Speaker 2: remember much because the catcher remembers the same thing. And
Speaker 2: I know I'm simplifying this a little bit too much,
Speaker 2: but it's amazing to me that if you pay attention,
Speaker 2: and I'm talking about paying attention in a live game
Speaker 2: and not even being the pitcher of record, just to
Speaker 2: watch there for a whole inning and watch every pitch
Speaker 2: toss will really teach you some things about yourself. Am
Speaker 2: I opening up? Well enough? Am I? In the right
Speaker 2: side of the rubber? I mean all the little things
Speaker 2: that we take for granted, right right, I mean every
Speaker 2: one of us did. But this whole system that Saying
Speaker 2: had developed was just it was just a no brainer,
Speaker 2: for lack of a better term, jen.
Speaker 1: Right. It made you feel the ball. It made you
Speaker 1: become that fifth in fielder. All the things that you
Speaker 1: learned went back to little. It was things you adjusted to.
Speaker 1: But you had a great career of doing it on
Speaker 1: the defensive scent. So let's go away from it a
Speaker 1: little bit away from baseball. You talked about did you
Speaker 1: played Oregon and you really played it very well? You
Speaker 1: probably still do it now you'll learn from the White
Speaker 1: Sox organist.
Speaker 2: Is that crew? The yes, Bob Freed was his name, right.
Speaker 2: He was my teacher when I was just learning how
Speaker 2: to play piano and organ. And after about five or
Speaker 2: six years of pretty intense tutorage, he was great. And
Speaker 2: he detoured Vegas, he toured everywhere. So that's how good
Speaker 2: of a player he was. Everybody wanted to use Bob,
Speaker 2: and Bob later became a professor at the University of Illinois.
Speaker 1: So you still played, you still get on there?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure, absolutely, that's absolutely when I can't give
Speaker 2: that up. That was the one thing my dad demanded,
Speaker 2: you get that thing done, and you get that thing
Speaker 2: so you can read it. And the biggest thing that
Speaker 2: I found out that I accomplished was I was able
Speaker 2: to read music. There's probably eighty percent of the people
Speaker 2: in this world who play a piano or an organ,
Speaker 2: they probably don't read music. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
Speaker 2: just one of those things because you can take it
Speaker 2: for granted because it doesn't seem to be the biggest
Speaker 2: problem in the world, but it is. It can certainly
Speaker 2: be, because if you don't have the ability to read, you
Speaker 2: can't just take it off the hook and say, all right, guys,
Speaker 2: what are we going to play? Most of those guys
Speaker 2: probably don't know the song that you want to talk about.
Speaker 1: So you're a winter relaxation from the game of baseball,
Speaker 1: and that problem.
Speaker 2: Is absolutely right. Bill. A couple more.
Speaker 1: Minutes with Denny McClain on the ext Learning Postgame Show
Speaker 1: as we recap What You Build a Bag Career one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty one ninety Bill, Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Bill, I don't have anywhere to go for two hours,
Speaker 2: so I'm okay.
Speaker 1: You watch the talk right. Well, we could talk all day, Denny.
Speaker 1: You're my hero. That's why I'm so excited to speak
Speaker 1: with you today. We watched it on the black and
Speaker 1: white and living room. I love to watching you pitch.
Speaker 1: And the Tigers was my team in Toledo, and it
Speaker 1: was all those guys that you had around, the al
Speaker 1: Calines and Willie Hortons and Norm Cashes. And of course
Speaker 1: the next person I wanted to talk to was Mickey Lolich.
Speaker 1: He was your right hand man, a great left hander.
Speaker 1: I remember something you said, you said, I'll take five
Speaker 1: Mickey Lolich's over anybody, and I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He had the greatest arm I've ever seen. The
Speaker 2: guy never ever ever missed the start because of his arm.
Speaker 2: Never I mean, and he had, you know, hundreds of starts,
Speaker 2: and even at the latest age in his life pitching,
Speaker 2: when he was still pitching, he had the ability to
Speaker 2: still go out, warm up and probably give you four
Speaker 2: or five innings. I mean, he was eighty years old.
Speaker 1: He was fascinating. And we didn't even get into that
Speaker 1: sixty eight World Series that you had to go up
Speaker 1: because Bobby Gibson and you ended up leading game six
Speaker 1: and it went game seven. What a fabulous world series
Speaker 1: that was.
Speaker 2: Well, Mickey Nicky saved my wife in that game, by
Speaker 2: the way, because if he doesn't, if he doesn't win
Speaker 2: win that ballgame, uh, they're probably gonna shoot me and
Speaker 2: hang me in you charge. So I'm praying for him.
Speaker 2: Jesus couldn't have brought more blessings to the ballparks that
Speaker 2: day than I did.
Speaker 1: That was a fabulous world series, one of the what's
Speaker 1: a great one games? And going against Bob gets in ye,
Speaker 1: that was just a hell of a mark for your
Speaker 1: team to do, and and all the layers trying to
Speaker 1: make contact with him. He was sensational. What did you
Speaker 1: think of Bob Gibson back then?
Speaker 2: Well, that day I said this a thousand times that
Speaker 2: day he was the greatest pitcher guy ever put on
Speaker 2: the face of the earth. That day. A lot of
Speaker 2: guys had good stuff, lots of guys, as you know.
Speaker 2: But the bottom line is that day he had control
Speaker 2: of everything and everybody. And we knew in the third inning.
Speaker 2: Unless unless we had somebody in the stand shoot him
Speaker 2: or or get him after the words and tell him
Speaker 2: what we're going to do to him, try to scare
Speaker 2: it out of him, nothing would have worked. He was
Speaker 2: he wasn't I when I hit the first time, I
Speaker 2: tell you how good he was. The first two pitches
Speaker 2: that he threw to me, two fastballs, I never saw, wow,
Speaker 2: neither one. It's not because of the speed, it's because
Speaker 2: of where he put the ball, and he put There's
Speaker 2: nothing worse than trying to hit the ball when it's
Speaker 2: down and in, down and in and the inside part
Speaker 2: of the plate. I think that's the toughest son of
Speaker 2: a bitch in the world to hit. And boy, he
Speaker 2: had it that day. He just threw me one after
Speaker 2: another and I probably kissed my butt long before I
Speaker 2: ever struck out on the third pitch. I mean, he
Speaker 2: was unbelievable and he had such and he had something
Speaker 2: that he never had before. He admitted to it that
Speaker 2: he never had that kind of a curve ball. And
Speaker 2: I said, where the hell did it come from? He said,
Speaker 2: I don't know, but it was there when I said.
Speaker 1: I worked boy, Denny, you were my idol man. I
Speaker 1: watched you like a hot pleasure. It was a pleasure
Speaker 1: catching up with you. And what a fabulous career, mister McLain.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe we'll do something during the World Series or
Speaker 2: something else.
Speaker 1: Happy to catch up with you, but thank you.
Speaker 2: This has been a lot of fun. Billy and everybody
Speaker 2: out there, have a great day, have a great month,
Speaker 2: and a great year, and let's all rock and roll,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: That was Denny McLain post game show and work coming
Speaker 1: up right here on K and BR.