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I Told You I Wasn't Perfect
From being the only 30-game winner in more than 70 years to having the Gambino crime family order a hit for your murder, Denny McLain has surely seen it RICO charges from the U.S. government to touring the country as a popular musician playing on national TV and the Las Vegas strip before becoming a close jail-house friend to John Gotti Jr. I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect allows the former All-Star pitcher to share his cautionary tale with generations of baseball. In 1968, McLain set the baseball world on fire by being the first pitcher to win at least 30 games since Dizzy Dean 34 years earlier. But just two years later he was banned from the game for half a season, traded away to the laughing-stock Washington Senators where he entered into a never-ending battle with baseball icon Ted Williams. By 1972, he was a retired star, hustling games of golf. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he was in and out of prison for charges including racketeering, loan-sharking, extortion, cocaine possession, and fraud before being included in wide-sweeping RICO charges that tried to connect him to Gotti and the violent underworld of the mafia. In this moving autobiography, McLain reveals how his desire for excitement and attention led directly to his downfall from being a popular public image and cost him his marriage, which has since been reconciled and remarried.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 1, 2008
Random: autographed by author, gift to me from John Simone, General Manager of the Syracuse Chiefs, after Denny appeared in Syracuse August 2007.
August 11, 2014
I met Denny McLain a few times when I first came to Detroit. He was doing radio and TV then, and he was full of bluster. He was the kind of guy who would draw you into a conversation and would fascinate you, but at the same time would leave you thinking I would never trust him. I guess his whole life has been like that. This book certainly is. There's plenty of insight, plenty of self-examination and plenty of beating himself up, and you still come away thinking there's no way I trust this guy.
April 20, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: FROM WINNING 31 GAMES IN A YEAR… TO FEDERAL PRISON!
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I am a sports fanatic, and have read “literally” hundreds of sports books over the last decade or so. This autobiography has much more in it than a normal sports fan would expect. Sure, it has his baseball history, which shows him as perhaps the first “modern day”, totally spoiled, self-possessed, spoiled brat, baseball star, who took advantage of the media’s growing fascination with spoiled, rich ballplayers. He admittedly let his mouth run wild as his fame grew. Alienating, not only his teammates, but also, all “old school” players, executives, and fans. (Me!)
The beginning of the book, which traces his abusive childhood, up to his making the major leagues, leads us to the information that I already knew and expected: The last player to win 30 games in a season, (31 in 1968), the youngest player in major league history (At that time.) to win 100 games, (25 years old.) being suspended from baseball for gambling. Interesting, but old ground. Here is where his trouble really begins, and it seems like it takes forever, for Denny to realize he’s the problem, not everyone else.
Here’s where this book became absolutely fascinating to me, and became way more than your every day baseball book! When Denny went to federal prison, he describes in agonizing, claustrophobic, detail, what it’s really like to be in federal prison, not a country club prison. What I tell you next is the absolute truth! A couple of times while I was engrossed in the portions of the book of what he went through, in his tiny, cramped cell, I actually got out a tape measure twice, and measured the size of my bed, to compare it to the cell he was in. To me this book is much more than a baseball book, it is also a “scared-straight” story. This is a story of success and arrogance gone astray. Denny went from 31 wins in a season and back to back Cy Young Awards, to Federal Prison, sharing a cell block with Gotti Jr., and innumerable de-humanizing body searches. I not only recommend this book highly; I feel it should be mandatory reading for every rookie entering the Major Leagues!
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I am a sports fanatic, and have read “literally” hundreds of sports books over the last decade or so. This autobiography has much more in it than a normal sports fan would expect. Sure, it has his baseball history, which shows him as perhaps the first “modern day”, totally spoiled, self-possessed, spoiled brat, baseball star, who took advantage of the media’s growing fascination with spoiled, rich ballplayers. He admittedly let his mouth run wild as his fame grew. Alienating, not only his teammates, but also, all “old school” players, executives, and fans. (Me!)
The beginning of the book, which traces his abusive childhood, up to his making the major leagues, leads us to the information that I already knew and expected: The last player to win 30 games in a season, (31 in 1968), the youngest player in major league history (At that time.) to win 100 games, (25 years old.) being suspended from baseball for gambling. Interesting, but old ground. Here is where his trouble really begins, and it seems like it takes forever, for Denny to realize he’s the problem, not everyone else.
Here’s where this book became absolutely fascinating to me, and became way more than your every day baseball book! When Denny went to federal prison, he describes in agonizing, claustrophobic, detail, what it’s really like to be in federal prison, not a country club prison. What I tell you next is the absolute truth! A couple of times while I was engrossed in the portions of the book of what he went through, in his tiny, cramped cell, I actually got out a tape measure twice, and measured the size of my bed, to compare it to the cell he was in. To me this book is much more than a baseball book, it is also a “scared-straight” story. This is a story of success and arrogance gone astray. Denny went from 31 wins in a season and back to back Cy Young Awards, to Federal Prison, sharing a cell block with Gotti Jr., and innumerable de-humanizing body searches. I not only recommend this book highly; I feel it should be mandatory reading for every rookie entering the Major Leagues!
August 17, 2020
Sports fans have heard the media version of the "ups & downs" with McLain's career and life, yet this read would be Denny's own version. Book was divided into two parts with the fist third being the story of winning 31 games and Tiger ball team's victory in the 1968 world series. Lot's of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. The second 2/3 is of the huge blunders McLain initiated in the years after. A great read as what "not to do" with for decisions with family and career!
July 1, 2018
This book is similar to his initial book from 1975 with some repeated stories. This one add many new stories after his baseball career involving business dealings, prison time, and struggles with his family. I was less interested in this book because it was less than 50% about his baseball career.
December 24, 2023
And it wasn't. Poor editing, no proofreading, ugh. He was obviously self absorbed. I'm not sure two stints in prison really changed him.
December 22, 2025
Awesome read!
July 24, 2007
This guy's an asshole, but his book is entertaining. He blew out his arm after like four seasons and became washed-up faster than former rookie of the year Bob Hamlin. I bet a lot of this is lies considering he's the guy who wrote the book, but it's still pretty informative if you never knew he was involved in the transportation of cocaine and the bankruptcy of numerous businesses.
February 28, 2013
I met him, he signed my book. I learned a lot about the 1968 World Series Champs.
April 13, 2013
Nothing new or groundbreaking and McLain isn't a sympathetic figure even though he attempts to make himself one. Only read it because I'm a Tiger fan.
July 7, 2015
Excellent
A wonderful book about baseball and all that went on in his life I like true stories about famous people
A wonderful book about baseball and all that went on in his life I like true stories about famous people
September 20, 2016
What an idiot! Great baseball stories of my team from my childhood.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews