#100 DENNY McLAIN

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#100 DENNY McLAIN

ATLANTA BRAVES 1972

Boy, was I excited when the Braves got Denny McLain! 

I knew about his 31-6 record with the Detroit Tigers just four years earlier and...that might as well have been forty years earlier. Traded for in 1972 for Orlando Cepada (another bad 70's Braves trade) Atlanta was the last stop of his career and Denny managed 3 wins with the '72 Braves before getting released. His longest standing contribution to Atlanta was the bar called Denny Mclain's Gaffers, which opened up on Peachtree Street across from the Fox Theater and closed within about six months. However, for some reason the sign remained blowing in the breeze on Peachtree Street for several years afterwards! You think someone would have taken it down sooner. But it did serve as a reminder of yet another failure of the 70's Atlanta Braves in what proved to be a very trying decade.

His complete game victory over Houston on August 8, 1972 proved to be his last in the majors. The man who at one time appeared to be well on his way to a Hall of Fame career found that career over at age 28.