"31 wins and an album on Capitol for Denny McLain."

Last night at the...Flying Squirrels...game I was pleasantly surprised by Denny McLain being there signing autographs. I have no idea why Denny McLean was in Richmond VA on a random Monday night (well, to sell his newest bio, I guess), but I was pretty thrilled to be meeting Major League Baseball's last (prolly ever) 30 game winner.

Once he realized who I was, he insisted on becoming a member of the Xmastime #1 Club.  Congrats, Denny!

A few innings later I was going up to get some...Squirrely fries...and noticed that nobody was around him. He was just sitting there looking bored to death. There's no way I'm not going up and chatting some more with Denny McLean, I decided, and I walked up to him and asked if it was true he'd grooved a ball in to Mickey Mantle during Mickey's final at-bat at Tiger Stadium. His face lit up and he told the story:

McLain had grown up idolizing New York Yankee center fielder, Mickey Mantle, who entered the game tied with Jimmie Foxx for third place in the major league career home runs list. When Mantle came to bat in the eighth inning with McLain and the Tigers holding a 6-1 lead, McLain intentionally threw a soft pitch directly over home plate. Mantle hit the ball for his 535th career home run putting him in sole possession of third place on the all-time home run list, behind only Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. As Mantle ran around the bases, McLain stood on the pitchers mound and applauded. The next batter, Joe Pepitone, waved his bat over the plate, as if asking for an easy pitch of his own. McLain responded by throwing the next pitch over Pepitone's head.

and then blathered on for a bit about how great Mickey was, how all the players worshiped him, and then said if I bought his book ($15) he'd throw in this picture of Joe Pepitone:

I got roped a bit into buying his book, but it was totally worth it to hang out for a few minutes with a living legend who personally knew Mickey fucking Mantle.