For a brief, white-hot stretch in the late sixties, Denny McLain wasn't just the best pitcher in the American League; he was a cultural phenomenon who lived life at a breakneck speed that mirrored his fastball. While his time at the summit was fleeting, McLain provided the Motor City with a statistical explosion that remains one of the most singular achievements in the history of the sport.

McLain’s rise in Detroit began with a glimpse of his massive ceiling in the mid-sixties. He broke out in 1966, winning 20 games for the first time and signaling a transition from a young arm with potential to a frontline starter. He possessed a focused intensity and a disregard for the game’s established norms, a style that culminated in the historic 1968 campaign. That summer, McLain reached a peak that no pitcher has touched since, winning 31 games and becoming the last man to cross the thirty-victory threshold. It was a statistical outlier of a season where he captured both the Cy Young and the MVP, leading the Tigers to a World Series title and cementing his legacy as the premier outlier of his era.

The core of his tenure was defined by a three-year run of unrivaled dominance and high-frequency workloads. In 1969, he proved his arm hadn't lost its bite, winning 24 games and securing a second consecutive Cy Young Award. He showed the organization that a pitcher could lead the league in starts, innings, and complete games simultaneously, providing the steady-state reliability that made the Tigers a perennial threat. However, the distractions of a high-profile life off the diamond soon caught up with him. In 1970, the commissioner handed down a series of suspensions, initially sparked by his involvement in a bookmaking operation and later compounded by a clubhouse prank involving a bucket of water, which effectively derailed his momentum and cost him a significant portion of the season.

Everything culminated in a rapid shift in direction following that tumultuous 1970 campaign. Between the disciplinary issues and a sudden loss of efficiency on the mound, the Tigers traded the two-time Cy Young winner to the Washington Senators. He left Detroit with 117 wins and 1,150 strikeouts, a statistical footprint that felt like a meteor strike, brilliant, devastating, and gone far too soon.

A four-time All-Star during his stint with the Detroit Tigers (1990-97), Travis Fryman was a former Silver Slugger winner who smacked 149 Home Runs and had a .300 Batting Average Season in 1993.  Fryman had 1,176 Hits in Detroit.

It is certainly accurate that Kirk Gibson is best remembered for his dramatic World Series walk-off Home Run for the Los Angeles Dodgers (a year he was named MVP) but the real meat of his career was in Motown playing for the Tigers.  Gibson was already a World Series Champion in Detroit (1984) and won the MVP of the ALCS that year.  As a Tiger, Gibson would hit 195 Home Runs, steal 194 bases with a .480 Slugging Percentage.

Jerry Springer has made a few appearances on WWE Television and didn’t it seem like a natural fit?  We thought so, and the WWE Network did too as they hired him to host the “Too Hot for Television” specials.  Frankly, we don’t think we have seen the last of him in a WWE ring.