MLB’s last 30-game winner McLain to appear at July 11 RiverDogs game

  • Staff report
  • Posted: Thursday, July 5, 2012 12:08 a.m.
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FILE - This is an Oct. 19, 2006 file photo showing former Major League Baseball pitcher Denny McLain at his home in Livingston County, Mich. McLain has been arrested at the Canadian border in northern Michigan on a fugitive fraud warrant. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Jeffery Wilson says McLain was arrested Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, in Port Huron, Mich. (AP Photo/Tony Ding, File)

Denny McLain, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who is the major league’s last 30-game winner, will appear at the Charleston RiverDogs-Asheville Tourists game on July 11 at Riley Park.

He will sign copies of his 2007 autobiography, “I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect,” and will also throw the ceremonial first pitch, which is slated for 7:05 pm.

McLain pitched for the Detroit Tigers (1963-70), Washington Senators (1971), Oakland A’s (1972) and the Atlanta Braves (1972) and fashioned a career 131-91 record with a 3.39 ERA and 1,282 strikeouts. Thirty-one of his victories came in 1968 when the Tigers captured the World Series over the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals.

McLain’s remarkable season in 1968 produced a 31–6 record and a 1.96 ERA, his second of three All-Star berths (1966, ’68 and ’69) and 1968 American League Cy Young Award as well as the AL Most Valuable Player Award. McLain became the first pitcher in the history of the American League to win the Most Valuable Player Award and the Cy Young Award in the same season. He also won the Cy Young Award in 1969.

Since McLain’s 31-win season, only two other pitchers have approached the 30-win milestone (Steve Carlton of Philadelphia won 27 games in 1972 and Oakland’s Bob Welch notched 27 victories in 1990).

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