The McClain Metaphor.

Baseball was struggling in 1970. It had lost its innocence long ago, but now it was faced with disgrace. Public scandals, labor disputes, greed, arrogance, dissolution, and hucksterism characterized the nation's game. It took more and more spectacular plays every year to draw the fans' attentions from the pages of the tabloids to the field. At the beginning of the decade the character of the entire game seemed to be symbolized by the misfortunes of the blustery Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McClain. He had won thirty-one games in 1968 —the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean in 1934 to win over thirty — and he had twenty-four wins in 1969. He was at the top of the game, and then he self-destructed. First he was suspended from baseball for two months for his involvement with professional bookmakers. He turned from insufferable braggart to self-pitying apologist overnight, explaining that...