Word: mclain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When Hoynes brought up former baseball offenders Leo Durocher and Denny McLain, who received swifter punishments for gambling violations "arguably less prolonged and offensive," he was ringing an alarm that has chilled baseball since 1920. The Chicago "Black Sox" threw the 1919 World Series and almost threw away the public's confidence in the integrity of the game. The club owners, acting in concert, created the commissioner's office for the explicit purpose of clearing out the gamblers. Without any process at all, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis expelled everyone involved in the Black Sox scandal. His '40s successor, Happy Chandler...
...Denny McLain, the Detroit Tigers pitcher, had a delightful alibi for two mashed toes that cost the 1967 pennant. He said he hurt himself shooing a raccoon away from a garbage can. Whether the raccoon had a Mob connection was a matter of speculation, but McLain was definitely the garbage can. When his bookmaking sideline was uncovered, he blurted, "My biggest crime is stupidity." Actually, it was just the thing at which he was most accomplished...
Ueberroth's predecessor, Bowie Kuhn, banished Detroit pitcher Denny McLain for half a year in 1970 for financing a betting shop. In 1979 and in 1983 Kuhn politely ordered casino glad-handers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle to stay away from baseball until they quit playing golf with gamblers. To much applause, Ueberroth rescinded that ban four years ago. In the last week of his tenure (Giamatti takes office April 1), the Rose affair may make him wonder if that was such a great signal...
...year ago, Villanova point guard Gary McLain revealed in a controversial article in Sports Illustrated that he and several other Villanova players had used cocaine during the 1984-85 season. McLain said he was high during the 1985 championship game...
...confession tainted the memory of that 1985 championship game. After reading McLain's piece, you looked back on that championship with a bitter glint in your eyes. Instead of seeing a bunch of fine athletes stunning a highly-favored opponent, you saw Gary McLain and you saw cocaine...