Denny McLain, Baseball’s Last 30-Game Winner

In all of major league baseball history, going back well over a hundred years, there has been only a handful of pitchers who have won 30 or more games in a single season.

That short list includes names like Cy Young, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Dizzy Dean.

The last to do it, did it 51 years ago.

It was on Saturday, September 14th, 1968 that Detroit Tigers righthander Denny McLain struck out 10 batters as the Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics.

Fast forward 20 years, almost to the day — that’s when I interviewed Denny McLain.

Denny McLain swept the American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards and won the Cy Young in 1969 before his career imploded after rotator cuff issues.

But McLain, who is 75 now, never made it into baseball’s Hall of Fame.