Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GENE GUIDI KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That verse penned by Ernie Harwell, celebrating the mercurial pitcher, turned out to be as prophetic as it was lyrical.
When it comes to winning 30 games in a season, there hasn't been any like Denny - at least in the past 58 years. And McLain will tell you that major-league baseball will see a .400 hitter or a 62-home run season before another 30-game winner comes along.
McLain, always known as a guy who would fire the high, hard one off the mound as well as on, said: "Pitching is so bad now - and it's getting worse.
"Not only that, but when pitchers get ahead in the fifth or sixth inning today, they're looking to come out. Too many things can happen when a pitcher leaves. If Mayo Smith [McLain's manager] had come out to get me in the sixth inning, I wouldn't have given him the ball."
McLain pitched 28 complete games while going 31-6 in 1968. Last year, no team in either league had that many complete games.
Of course, that's not the only reason 30-game winners have become nonexistent. McLain pitched in an era of four-man rotations, which gave him 41 starts in 1968. Now teams employ five-man rotations, and pitchers no longer make 40 starts in a season. Last year, Mike Moore and Rick Sutcliffe tied for the most starts with 36.
When Bob Welch won 27 of 35 starts with the Athletics in 1990, an uncommonly strong bullpen supported him. He had only two complete games. But nothing has suffered with expansion more than relief pitching; when a starter leaves a game today, his chance at victory often leaves with him.
There are other, more subtle, reasons for the disappearing 30-game winner.
"I don't think you'll see another pitcher do it because of all the travel now," Tigers manager Sparky Anderson said. "The more teams you add, the harder it gets. It wears pitchers out."
Today's pitchers also are less likely to pay the physical price it takes to win 30 games. And can you blame them? With salaries having escalated into the millions of dollars, a pitcher doesn't want to risk his future earning power by blowing out an elbow or doing permanent damage to a shoulder.
McLain's arm was hurt midway through the 1968 season, but the disabled list wasn't the same option it is today. His arm was hurting, but he never missed a turn.
"Every time I pitched, they gave me a cortisone shot," McLain said. "That was the drug of the day. It was supposed to work miracles."
The treatments allowed McLain to pitch a league-leading 336 innings that season, followed by an AL-best 325 innings in 1969. But the abuse caught up to him not long after; a sore shoulder forced him out of the game in 1972.
McLain said the present-day quality of play behind a pitcher is another reason it's tough to win 30.
"The Tigers were just so fundamentally sound behind me in '68," McLain said. "Everyone on the team could play anywhere on the field. I mean, you could put Willie Horton at second base and he would have done the job.
"The team never made errors and didn't miss a cutoff man all year when I was pitching. I think it helped that I threw hard and high in the strike zone. That led to a lot of fly balls; you don't see fly balls get messed up as much as ground balls."
Harwell, who called McLain's 31-victory season as a Tigers broadcaster, said the disappearance of fastball pitchers makes him believe there won't be another 30-game winner.
"Denny threw hard and so did Dizzy Dean [the last pitcher to win 30 before McLain], and Lefty Grove before that," Harwell said. "You just don't have pitchers now who throw hard consistently."
"I'll tell you why that is," McLain said. "You have children now throwing curves and sliders at age 12. They are more interested in winning Little League games, and it retards arm development down the line."
The top winner in the majors this season is White Sox right-hander Jack McDowell (17-6). McDowell isn't overpowering, relying instead on a wicked split-finger fastball as his out pitch. McDowell has gone from 14 to 17 to 20 victories in his past three major-league seasons to date, but McLain says you can forget about him bumping that number to 30.
"He gives up too many runs [3.64 ERA compared to McLain's 1.96 in 1968]," McLain said. "Besides, if you don't have 20 wins [by the end of] July, you can forget it. You have no chance."
McLain notched his 20th victory on July 27, shutting out the Orioles 9-0.
"One of the reasons I got to 20 so fast was that I pitched three times in the first half of the season on two days' rest," McLain said. "I didn't do that to pump up my won-loss record; I did it because we were in a pennant race."
McLain won all three of those short-rest starts.
As the second half of the season wound down and McLain continued his march to 30 victories, the national media intensity grew. But it was nothing like a potential 30-game winner would face today.
"Remember, there was no ESPN or USA Today following your every move," Harwell said. "Denny did have appearances on the `Ed Sullivan Show' and the `Smothers Brothers.' I remember him saying late in the year that the only time he could relax was when he was on the mound.
"But the hype wasn't the same as today. It didn't even match that last weekend in New York a couple of years ago when Cecil [Fielder] was going for 50 homers."
The 1968 season was magical for the Tigers, and it has been said that McLain was just swept along by the good fortune. While it's true that the Tigers averaged more than five runs in his 41 starts, it's also just as true that McLain knew what to do with a lead. He was tenacious in protecting an advantage supplied by his offense, especially in the late innings.
"We had two other pitchers on the 1968 team who had better stuff than I did: Mickey Lolich and Joe Sparma," McLain said. "But they weren't as consistent as I was. I was a better pitcher with a one- or two-run lead than they were.
"God gave me great control, and I just didn't walk anyone [McLain pitched five complete games in which he walked none, and 12 in which he walked only one]. The more strikes you throw, the more games you're going to win."
McLain followed his improbable 1968 season with 24 victories in 1969, again leading the league.
"Believe it or not, I think I pitched even better in '69," McLain said. "But everything didn't go right for us like it did the year before.
"The funny thing about 1968 was that I had a couple of no-decisions in my first two starts - games we ended up winning - and the guys were kidding me that it was going to be one of those years."
As it turned out, it was "one of those years" for McLain - one that baseball might not see again for a long, long time.
by CNB