Wendel: Lolich and McLain and the ’68 Tigers
From SABR member Tim Wendel at The National Pastime Museum on December 11, 2016:
Even in their best season together, the differences between Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich bordered on the extreme.
In 1968, McLain was all glitz and glamour, flying his own airplane around the country and telling reporters how his biggest aspiration wasn’t necessarily to win the Cy Young but to appear on The Tonight Show. Lolich regularly drove 250 miles north to Alpena, Michigan, where his National Guard unit was based—the same one that had patrolled the riot-torn streets of Detroit the summer before.
Looking back on that memorable season and this star-crossed partnership, McLain could have been the big brother, the one who always got his way, while Lolich was the little kid at his heels, struggling to keep up. Amazingly, the Tigers rode this dysfunctional relationship all the way to the World Series.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/lolich-and-mclain
Originally published: December 13, 2016. Last Updated: December 13, 2016.