Never Touch A Superstar

MARCH 15

Denny McLain has been taking flying lessons. He's imported an instructor from Detroit to give him lessons here in Lakeland, Fla. We've been calling him "Sky King," or sometimes, because he won the Cy Young Award last year, "Sky Young."

Denny sort of flies in his own world anyway—I guess just about everybody knows that he spends as much time playing his Hammond organ as he does playing baseball—so none of us mind him flying around down here. If he's got to learn to fly, I'm glad he's using the skies over Lakeland instead of the skies over Detroit. It's less crowded here, and I'd sure hate to lose a 30-game winner.

But some of us were pretty resentful today because, while the rest of us traveled down to Miami by bus—our only overnight trip of the spring—Denny flew his own plane down. Mayo Smith, our manager, has a strict rule that the whole team has to travel together, and it's almost impossible for most of us to get permission to violate that rule. Denny's excuse—he wanted to practice his flying—just didn't seem good enough to some of us.

APRIL 6

We played our final exhibition game today, against the Cincinnati Reds, and we lost it. We finished the spring with nine victories and 17 defeats, our worst preseason record in seven years.

One of our main problems has been McLain, but I'm not too worried about him. Denny can turn on his valve a little differently from the rest of us. He hasn't even been with us for five days. He's nursing a sore shoulder, but he says he'll be ready on Opening Day. I've learned not to doubt Denny; over the years he's made me a believer.

Denny's a tough guy to understand. His concentration wanders a lot when he's on the mound, and off the mound he wanders a lot—running off after games to play the organ in nightclubs, flying around in his plane, looking after all his businesses. I've never had real good rapport with Denny. He likes to fight with me about strategy, and when things aren't going well for him he likes to break things and yell at the fans and the other players.

I've never had as much trouble communicating with any other pitcher as I've had with Denny. But, at the same time, I've never caught a better pitcher in my life. When Denny goes out there and puts his mind to it, he's the best pitcher in the world.

APRIL 8
Denny rejoined us today for our opening game. He pitched a three-hitter and beat Cleveland 6-2.