Denny McLain - Post-Major League Career

Post-Major League Career

In 1974, McLain played a season for the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League at Labatt Memorial Park in London, Ontario, Canada. Given his arm problems, McLain only pitched nine innings for the Majors, but he did play in 14 games at either shortstop, first base or catcher and batted .380, including hitting two homers in one game in London.

McLain continued to earn side money playing the organ at clubs, including a club in suburban Detroit with former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks working as a bartender. McLain also earned quite a bit of money hustling golf, easily attracting 'marks' due to his past baseball fame. Additionally, he reportedly once accepted over $160,000 to fly a wanted felon out of the country.

In his post-baseball career, his weight ballooned to 330 pounds (150 kg). He was imprisoned for drug trafficking (cocaine), embezzlement, and racketeering with Anthony Spilotro and later John Gotti Jr.. Attorney Lawrence R. Greene represented McLain before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, where his conviction under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa was reversed.

Between his stints in prison and rehabilitation in the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, McLain could be found on various sports shows on talk radio and occasionally on panel-format sports shows on network television in the Detroit area, as well as modeling "Hanes" underwear. He could also be found signing autographs at a metro Detroit 7-Eleven store at the corner of Mound Road and Metro Parkway in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where he was employed on work-release. He also hosted a popular daily talk radio show for a number of years after his release on Detroit talk station WXYT.

McLain's oldest daughter, Kristin, 26, was killed on 20 March 1992 in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. She had been living in Florida and was moving back home to Michigan when she was killed just a few miles from her parents' home. In part to escape his grief, McLain and several partners bought the Peet Packing Company (Farmer Peet's) located in the small town of Chesaning, Michigan in 1994. The company went bankrupt two years later. In 1996, he was convicted on charges of embezzlement, mail fraud, and conspiracy in connection with the theft of $2.5 million from the Peet employees' pension fund. McLain spent six years in prison; to this day he insists he knew nothing about the shady financial deals alleged by the government. McLain claims he paid restitution for this incident.

During the Detroit Tigers 2006 playoff run, McLain was the baseball analyst for Drew and Mike on WRIF radio in Detroit. In 2007, McLain released his autobiography I Told You I Wasn't Perfect, co-authored by longtime Detroit sportscaster and author Eli Zaret. Prior to that, McLain and Zaret hosted a sports television show together in Detroit.

McLain currently resides in Pinckney, Michigan, with his wife, Sharyn. Sharyn had divorced Denny during the latter's most recent incarceration, but remarried him upon his release. McLain writes a monthly editorial column and blogs regularly for * In Play! Magazine, a Detroit sports magazine.

Kevin Costner's character in the motion picture The Upside of Anger was partly based on McLain (and also partly on Kirk Gibson, another Tiger of World Series note).

On 11 April 2008, McLain was arrested without incident after deputies discovered an outstanding warrant against him for failing to appear for a 16 January court hearing.

On 22 September 2011, McLain was arrested in Port Huron, Michigan at the U.S.-Canadian border after officials discovered an outstanding warrant against him from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Because of construction detours, McLain had inadvertently taken an exit off of I-94 that sent him directly across the Bluewater Bridge and into Canada. He immediately returned to the U.S. where he was obligated to go through a U.S. Custom and Border Protection inspection booth. The outstanding warrant was discovered and McLain was jailed in Port Huron, MI. In less than a week, the warrant was cleared and McLain was released.