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It never made a best-seller list, and far better instructional books crowd today's bookshelves.
But what makes the 1969 book "How to Play Better Baseball" unique and more than a bit ironic isn't its content, but its authors.
When Frank Scott Associates published the 63-page volume, Denny McClain and Pete Rose represented the sport's very best. On the field, at least. Both would later become at least as infamous in retirement as they were famous while playing.
In 1969, McClain was even bigger than Rose. A year earlier, he won 31 of his 41 starts for the World Series Champion Detroit Tigers -- the last time a major-league pitcher won 30 games. Given today's five-man rotations, few starters ever take the mound more than 34 times, making McClain's feat one that may never be repeated.
He wasn't bad in '69, either, going 24-9. But his ERA rose by nearly a run to 2.80, a possible indication of the nose-dive his career was about to take. Suspended for part of the 1970 for ties to gambling, he managed just 17 wins while bouncing from Detroit to Washington (where he lost 22 games for the '71 Senators before they fled to Texas and became the Rangers). At 28, McClain, the inspiration for the put-down, "he's got a million-dollar body and a ten-cent head," washed out of the majors.
Then his troubles really started.
In 1985, McClain was convicted of racketeering, extortion and drug possession and sentenced to 25 years in prison. But the conviction was overturned on appeal after he served 29 months and he bounced back as a sports-talk show host and lounge piano player, briefly teaming up for a cabaret act with former heavyweight champion "Neon" Leon Spinks.
As usual, McClain couldn't make the good times last. In 1997, he was convicted of defrauding a meat-packing company's pension fund, and a year later he was charged with defrauding MCI of proceeds from the company's phone cards.
Not only was Rose's career much longer and more productive (24 seasons that ended with Charlie Hustle atop the all-time hits list), his rap sheet is much shorter -- a single tax evasion conviction and subsequent jail term.
Another irony -- despite his inept criminal career, McClain is technically eligible for baseball's Hall of Fame (though 131 wins will never make it), Rose's 4,256 hits don't exist as far as the institution's voters are concerned, thanks to his 1989 banishment by late Commissioner A. Bartlett Giammatti.
The book they co-authored (or at least put their names on -- it's pretty tough to imagine those two huddled around a typewriter) contains basic tips from McClain on pitching and Rose on hitting and fielding.
Given subsequent developments, the book would have been much more interesting if they had shared their tips for betting themselves into bankruptcy (with McClain adding chapters on how to unsuccessfully act like a Mob guy).
It's tough to imagine anyone outside North Carolina or Denver rooting for any Stanley Cup Finals match-up other than Toronto vs. Detroit.
Talk about old-time hockey.
LAST TIME LEAFS MET WINGS, LAST TIME TWO ORIGINAL SIX TEAMS MET, etc., etc.
I'm sure somebody, somewhere will care about Colorado vs. Carolina if that tradition-free matchup comes to pass, but I'm not sure I'd want to spent much time with them.
Speaking of the Red Wings, it's been interesting to watch Buffalo Sabres fans fume as Detroit rolls through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
As near as I can figure, Hasek is apparently a jerk because he said, on his way out of town, that he was looking forward to a team that had a legitimate chance at the Stanley Cup. And that Sabres management didn't seem interested in making a real run at the top.
Let's see. The Sabres have been sitting home for nearly a month, their parent company, Adelphia, has become known nationally as Enron Jr. and Hasek's Red Wings are still playing.
Yeah -- what an idiot.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 21 2002 |