Denny and Ted

Ted Williams and Denny McLain in 1971

Tiring of the clashes between Denny McLain and manager Ted Williams – not to mention the thought of seeing a repeat of those 22 losses McLain piles up in 1971 when the team plays in Washington – the Texas Rangers 54 years ago today ship the onetime 30-game winner to the Oakland Athletics.

In return, the Rangers receive a pair of pitching prospects in Don Stanhouse and Jim Panther.

“Playing for Ted was worse than being in jail,” McLain later says.

“He hated pitchers and he hated guys who couldn’t hit .300. He didn’t realize no one else had his hands and his eyes (as a player).”

Denny McLain finishing his career with Atlanta

McLain, less than four years after winning a stunning 31 games for the 1968 World Series-winning Detroit Tigers, lasts only five starts in Oakland before the A’s regift him to Atlanta for fading first baseman Orlando Cepeda.

McLain goes 3-5 with a horrific 6.50 earned-run average in 15 appearances for the Braves before landing in the minors, where he loiters for another season before washing out of baseball.

All before his 30th birthday.

Before this, commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends McLain a couple of times for consorting with gamblers and carrying a gun on a team flight.

Life becomes even worse for McLain after he leaves baseball.

There are charges of drug trafficking, racketeering and pension fraud after $2.5 million goes missing from his meat company's pension fund. The charges lead to a felony conviction and a 23-year sentence to a medium-security federal prison in Bradford County, Pa.

Not exactly the life McLain envisions for himself when he is one of baseball’s best young pitchers in the 1960s.

“No way,” McLain later says, “not a chance.”

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