McLain Could Make It All Back As A Professional Cautionary Tale

Denny McLain is broke, evicted, and has just been arrested again. This hardly qualifies as earth-shattering news. In fact, I’d place it in the same, getting-fatter file of shenanigans like Britney Spears’s latest personal train wreck. Denny’s stuff would be in that file, too.

The latest McLain mug shot appeared in the papers this morning. You could wallpaper a small room with the variations over the years. Denny’s been getting arrested since 1985, you know. And he keeps getting broke. And he keeps reappearing, on the radio, or on TV. Then he gets broke again. And arrested. And reappearing. He’s been running in place for 23 years.

Some Oakland County sheriff’s deputies showed up at McLain’s door in Livingston County’s Hamburg Township on Friday, to finalize an eviction due to a foreclosure judgment that went against him. Then they discovered that Denny had an outstanding warrant, from failing to appear in court on a civil charge back in January. Back to the hooskow went Denny. Another mug shot to add to the collection.

I blame Mayo Smith for all this. It’s always convenient to pick on the dead.

Smith, McLain’s manager in the salad days of 1967-69, let his star pitcher run rampant. It was OK for Denny to flit off and play the organ between starts, and fly his plane to the cities the Tigers were in, and otherwise break team rules, as long as he kept winning. That’s one version, anyway – one that I tend to believe the most. You can find the truth about McLain somewhere, as long as you don’t resort to asking him to tell it.

Smith, and Tigers management – usually a stiff, staid bunch – liked to turn the other way when McLain acted up. After all, Denny did win 92 games for them from 1966-69, including 31 in the World Series year of `68. He took home two Cy Young Awards (’68 and ’69). Maybe they just thought he was a flake – that wink of a baseball term for the fresh, the funny; the oddball. Whatever, it wasn’t until Denny dumped a bucket of water over some sportswriters’ heads in 1970, then was caught with a gun later that year, that he was suspended by the team, and eventually the league.

Oh, there was more that went largely unreported. Jim Northrup once told me of a business idea that McLain hoodwinked some of his teammates into, involving paint manufacturing and distribution. Sportscaster Dave Diles said on an ESPN piece about McLain: “Denny is the kind of person who would stab someone and explain that the victim ran into his knife – sixteen times.”

The sordid history of McLain, off the pitcher’s mound, begins in 1967. He complained late in the season of a mysterious foot injury. The Tigers, his teammates, were in a dogfight with three other clubs for the league pennant. But Denny, thanks to his bothersome foot, was largely unavailable to pitch in September, the race for the pennant in its last leg. The Tigers lost the flag – it being torn from their grasp on the last day of the season. There’s no telling how much a healthy McLain could have changed things.

One of the most understated book titles in publishing history

But here’s the rub. It eventually came out that McLain, in trouble with some gangsters over a bad debt, had his foot stomped on by one of the thugs late that summer. Again, it’s one version. But after what happened since ’67, it’s probably not all that far off the mark – despite Denny’s frequent denials.

So you have that, then the suspension in 1970. Then a disastrous season in 1971 with Washington, to whom the Tigers traded Denny in one of their best, most lopsided deals ever. He was washed up by the end of the 1972 season, at age 28.

There were failed business go-rounds, but that’s no crime. From ’72 to 1985, Denny McLain was simply a sad tale of a once-great player who lost his mojo quickly and whose career went down in flames at a tender age. Usually, that tale is sad enough. But McLain added to it, thickening his file, so much so that I wonder why he never went on the lecture circuit, giving speeches with the theme, “Don’t do what I did.”

Really. If Denny chose to, he could have made a living flying around the country, warning anyone in the crowd – anyone – to not do the things that he did. That’s all. Not even any writing involved. Just an easel, listing his boneheaded decisions, and a big circle to the right with one of those lines through it – the international symbol for NO.

“Don’t do the following...”

He could have made a mint. Of course, he would have maybe needed two easels, come to think of it.

Racketeering and other federal crimes in 1985. Convicted. Released after the verdict was overturned, due to prosecutorial misconduct. Another chance at life. Another chance to get it right.

Bought a meat packing plant in Chesaning in 1993. Charged with embezzling from the pension fund – actually, the WHOLE fund. Convicted in 1995. Thousands of families left holding an empty bag and staring at broke futures. Released in 2003. Yet another chance to get it right. Instead, McLain refused to show any remorse or acknowledge the big deal that his actions caused. He couldn’t care less.

In between, there were more failed business endeavors and several stints on talk radio and television. Someone kept hiring Denny. He wrote a book last year, belatedly titled I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect. Although I don’t remember Denny ever telling us that. I DO recall, however, his frequent cries of “not me” and “well, ME, but here’s why.”

Denny McLain has spent most of his life telling us that things just didn’t happen the way that they appear to have happened. He was a victim, just like those that he screwed.

Well, he’s a felon and a liar. And he STILL could have made it, if he only would have told everyone that, and cautioned them to be his antithesis.

He’s the only weasel I know with nine lives.

Look At Me! I'm Three!

OK, time for some shameless self-aggrandizing. Tomorrow marks the third birthday of OOB, and since that's a Saturday and I don't do Saturdays, I'm making my plug now.

As usual, this blog -- as any blog -- is nothing without an audience. And for those of you who click over here on any sort of basis -- regular, occasional, rare -- I am truly grateful. I'm also thrilled to consider myself part of a really cool network of Detroit sports bloggers that are second to none, as far as I'm concerned. I don't dare start listing them, because I'm sure to leave someone out. But their links appear on the sidebar, and if you haven't checked them out, you're missing out, big time.

So thanks again for keeping me from feeling like I'm writing in a vacuum.

Cheers.

Red Wings' Cup Chances Squarely On Hank & Mule's Backs

If it's too harsh to say that the Red Wings' hopes of winning a Stanley Cup ride squarely on the shoulders of a Hank and a Mule, tough. Sugar-coating it isn't going to change things, anyway.

The Red Wings, 3-1 winners last night in Game 1 of their first-round series with Nashville, are only going to go as far as forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen will take them. Sorry. It's not going to be anything erratic from goalie Dom Hasek that will do them in. Not going to be another ill-timed injury to defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Not going to be the absence of scoring from the so-called secondary forwards. It'll be -- and mark my words -- a catastrophic lack of production from Zetterberg (Hank) and Franzen (The Mule) that will send them home early.

Notice no mention of Pavel Datsyuk, or Dan Cleary, or Tomas Holmstrom. No foolish thoughts that Darren McCarty can pull a Joey Kocur and step up from retirement to be some sort of "x" factor. No, the hopes rest with Hank Z and The Mule, and if that makes you frown, it can't be helped. The Red Wings are nowhere without Zetterberg creating something out of nothing and assailing the net with one scoring chance after another, and without Franzen outmuscling opponents for the puck and making himself a nuisance in front of the goal.

Some might say those duties are also those shared by Datsyuk and Holmstrom. This might be true, but they are secondary now to what Zetterberg and Franzen are capable of doing.

Those two were at it again last night.


Zetterberg (top) and Franzen hold their team's Cup
fate in their hands


Franzen scored first, and Zetterberg broke a 1-1 tie in the third period for the game-winner. He added an empty-netter for two goals. Franzen, especially, has been on a roll. He's averaging a goal-a-game for the past 12 or so contests. And his hot streak has continued into the playoffs, a place where streaks, good and bad, have been known to disappear. Sometimes the NHL playoffs seem to have some sort of weird force field around them that makes whatever happened from October to April moot.

Which is my point. If Franzen and Zetterberg are not scoring, if they are not leading the team in points once we're several games into the post-season, then there's trouble brewing. Do not count on a Fernando Pisani to save the day. Remember Pisani? He went ballistic in the 2006 playoffs, vexing the Red Wings and two other teams before almost leading his Oilers to an upset over Carolina in the Cup Finals.

This is taking nothing from the dazzling Datsyuk, the tireless Cleary, or any other of the competent Red Wings forwards. But every team has its cream, no matter how many stars it might employ. Typically, a team wins the Cup because its best players are, well, its best players. It's been true in Detroit, and it's been true in other cities. The opposite? A seemingly well-oiled team has many times gagged because its best players ended up being more appropriately displayed on the side of a milk carton than in the game program. That's happened here, too.

Hank and The Mule. Saddle those guys up. Sorry to break it to you.

Thursday's Things

(on most Thursdays at OOB, I rant in list fashion. Last week it was Things The Tigers Can Do To Improve Their Bullpen Until Fernando Rodney And Joel Zumaya Return)

Ten Things I'll Never Forget When It Comes To Red Wings Playoff Runs*
*Note: I'm leaving winning the Cups out of this list because those are too easy

10. Goose loonies. In 1988, several Red Wings players were seen partying until the wee hours at the Goose Loonies bar in Edmonton, on the eve of Game 5 of the Conference Finals. That incident -- which was followed by a lackluster performance in the game -- cast aspersions on coach Jacques Demers' control over his players, and followed him until he was fired two years later.

9. John Brophy's choke gesture. Maple Leafs coach Brophy was caught on camera looking at the Red Wings bench and making a choking gesture during the 1987 conference semi-finals, mocking them while his Leafs charged to a 3-1 series lead. The Red Wings came back to win the series as Brophy's team gagged.

8. An unexpected ovation. I attended Game 4 of a first round series against the Blues in 1984, with the Red Wings facing elimination in the best-of-five go-round. The Red Wings lost in overtime, but after a brief groan by the crowd, they suddenly erupted in ovation, saluting the team's first playoff appearance in six years. It was quite a moment that I obviously haven't forgotten.

7. Upsetting the Canadiens. The Cinderella Red Wings faced the mighty Canadiens in Round 2 in 1978, and after losing Game 1, came back to stun the Canadiens in Game 2, squaring the series. The Red Wings came home to a raucous Olympia crowd, but lost the next three games.

6. Dino's declaration. After Claude Lemieux disfigured Kris Draper's face in the 1996 Conference Finals, Dino Ciccarelli stewed after the Avs bumped the Wings out. He spoke of the post-series handshake with Lemieux, saying, "I can't believe I shook his f***ing hand."

5. Yzerman returns from knee injury. It happened in Game 3 of the Conference Finals in 1988 against Edmonton. Steve Yzerman, out since early-March with a severe knee injury, showed us yet another example of his toughness and dedication when he returned after only two months, the Red Wings down 0-2 in the series. The ovation for no. 19 was thunderous.

4. Yzerman goes down. Game 5 of the 2004 conference semis. Yzerman is felled by an errant slapshot, taking it directly in the eye. All I kept thinking was, "PLEASE don't let his career end this way." Thankfully, it didn't, but it was a horrific injury.

3. Bill Lochead's goal. I wrote about it extensively here, but it bears mentioning again. Lochead's goal late in Game 2 of the 1978 first round put the Red Wings ahead against the Atlanta Flames, and they held on for their first series win in 12 years.

2. Yzerman's OT goal vs. St. Louis. It was sheer relief that I felt when Yzerman scored on a slapshot from the blue line to beat the Blues in double OT in Game 7 of the 1996 conference semis. The Wings won 62 games, then struggled to dispatch Winnipeg in Round 1. After taking a 2-0 lead on St. Louis, the Blues won the next three games. The Wings won a gutsy Game 6 on the road, then finally eliminated the Blues, 1-0, in Game 7. I remember pounding the carpet, screaming, "Thank God! Thank God!"

(TIE) 1. Larionov beats the 'Canes. Game 3, 2002 Cup Finals. It went into triple OT, and I watched this one in my car, at a drive-in theater, on one of those six-inch TV screens plugged into my cigarette lighter. As my wife and child dozed off, I watched silently. When Larionov scored, I stifled a scream, and I could hear others in their cars yelling. It was wonderfully surreal.

1. Wings come back against Caps. Game 2, 1998 Cup Finals. A wild one. The Red Wings fall behind by two goals twice, then rally to tie late in the third period. Washington's Esa Tikkanen misses an open net, with the Caps still up by one, opening the door for the Wings. Draper wins it in overtime. One of the most exciting playoff games you'll ever see.

Nashville's Trotz A Rarity Among Coaches

When the NFL granted the city of Dallas a franchise in 1960, it was the Big D's second chance at pro football. The first try, the woeful Texans, lasted just one season -- 1952. They were the typical expansion football team -- a motley crew of other team's rejects who were prone to stumbling and bumbling and with a fetish for being beaten handily every Sunday. By the midway point of the season, the Texans became wards of the league and didn't even play any home games. Players' paychecks bounced like rubber balls with regularity. Yet strangely, several players from that Texans team made up the core of the great Baltimore Colts (the Texans moved to Baltimore in '53) teams from later in the decade.

So it's doubtful that the new Dallas team -- the Cowboys, they'd be called -- made any splash in '60 with the news that their first head coach would be a young secondary coach from the New York Giants named Tom Landry.

Yet Landry and his fedora would remain on the Cowboys sideline for 29 seasons.

Quick, now -- name me the original coach of the Nashville Predators, now in their 9th NHL season. (cue the "Jeopardy" theme)

It's a trick question, of sorts. Sorry about that.

The man who stands behind the Preds bench today is the same one who did so when the puck was first dropped back in October 1998. None other than Barry Trotz.

Trotz, like Landry before him, is among the most rare of coaches: the leader of an expansion team who survives longer than a couple of wretched seasons.

Of course, I still think Landry's achievement is more impressive. The Cowboys went 0-11-1 in 1960, and didn't put together a decent season until 1966, their seventh campaign. The odds against expansion teams in the '60s and '70s, in all sports, were terribly skewed. Only in the last 10-20 years have new teams been given more of a fighting chance, with more equitable rules for filling their rosters, and more money to work with to attract free agents.

Still, the fact that Barry Trotz remains the Predators' only coach in Year Nine is pretty impressive. Certainly more impatient ownership would have found reason to can him sometime in the early 21st century. It's not like the Predators came out of the womb with 90-point seasons.


Trotz: rarely precedented job security for an expansion coach


But the playoffs are becoming less of a novelty in Nashville lately. This appearance against the Red Wings in Round 1 is the Preds' fourth straight post-season. Still, they've never won a playoff series.

Landry's Cowboys, by their ninth year, had already won three divisional titles and had played in two championship games. They put it all together and won Super Bowl VI in their 12th season.

Barry Trotz has had highly unusual job security as the coach of an expansion team. But he'd better start winning some playoff series soon. There's no telling how much more time he'll buy if his team upsets the Red Wings this month. Heaven forbid.