Recalling Denny McLain’s 31 Win Season of 1968

It’s completely up in the air whether we will have baseball at all this season (we’re leaning towards no at this point since the players and owners can’t agree on anything, and oh, there’s still this pandemic thing going on) so we’ll have to content ourselves with looking back at the past.

The 1968 season has been called The Year of the Pitcher, and for good reason. The St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson set a record that still stands of a 1.12 ERA, the lowest in the Live Ball Era which began in 1920. Gibson was 22-9 with 13 shutouts and 28 complete games, and was both the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants was 26-9 to lead the N.L. in victories; Marichal had 30 complete games in 38 starts. But those 26 wins were only second best in the majors that year.

That’s because Detroit Tigers righthander Denny McLain had a season for the ages, that had been seen only three times since the beginning of the Live Ball Era, and hasn’t been seen since. McLain was 31-6 that year. It was the first 30 win season for a pitcher since the Cardinals’ Dizzy Dean went 30-7 in 1934. Before that, the Philadelphia Athletics’ Lefty Grove won 31 in 1931, and the Cleveland Indians’ Jim Bagby won 31 in 1920.

Here’s the call by Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell on McLain winning his 30th game on a Willie Horton base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning:

McLain had a 1.96 ERA in 1968, but Gibson and three American League pitchers actually had lower ERAs; seven hurlers had ERAs under 2.00, five of whom were in the A.L. The only A.L. batter to hit better than .300 was Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski, who won the batting title with a .301 average. (The National League leader was Cincinnati’s Pete Rose who hit a healthy .335). In order to help the offense, the pitcher’s mound was lowered by five inches in 1969, and the strike zone was made a little smaller.

The Tigers won the American League Pennant in 1968, the last year the two leagues consisted of one division each. The Cardinals won the National League Pennant setting up Gibson vs. McLain in the World Series. Gibson and McLain faced each other in Games 1 and 4, both of which were won by Gibson (who allowed just one run in two complete game victories), with McLain taking the losses. McClain took the mound again in Game 6, with Detroit trailing 3-2 in the series. This time McLain faced Cardinal lefty Ray Washburn. The Tigers scored 10 runs in the third inning on the way to a 13-1 complete game victory for McLain.

Gibson started Game 7 against Detroit lefthander Mickey Lolich. Although Gibson pitched another complete game, this one was a loss. Lolich also pitched a complete game to lead the Tigers to a 4-1 victory, and a World Series championship.

Gibson was 2-1 in the World Series with a 1.67 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched. McLain was 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA. The pitching star for Detroit was Lolich, who was 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in three complete games.

McLain was 24-9 in 1969, repeating as the A.L. Cy Young Award winner. But injuries and off the field issues ended McClain’s major league career after the 1972 season. He was 131-91 with a 3.39 ERA in his career. Baseball has gone to five man pitching rotations and multiple relief specialists, as opposed to McLain’s era where four man rotations were the norm, making it extremely difficult to approach the 30 win level in today’s game.