Denny McLain - Tiger Stadium Organ Pitch
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Many Detroiters remember Tiger Denny Mclain, the star
pitcher of the 1968 World Series. Denny was a Cy Young Award winner and an
American league MVP whose career spanned 10 years with four major-league teams.
Denny’s illustrious sports career occurred in tandem with his accomplishments as a
musician. This dichotomy makes for a very interesting life story that extends to the instruments he played. Ultimately, his life was marred by uncontrolled
impulses, bad decisions and associations with organized crime. He was out of
the majors after ten years and would periodically run afoul of the law. Eventually even doing time in prison for
embezzlement.
McLain - Pitcher/Organist
McLain was born
in Markham Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago on March
29,1944. South side Irish, he came from a family of large, tough, pale policeman.
There was music in the Mclain home however, his father was an organ teacher.
When Dennis was nine his dad bet him five dollars he couldn’t stick with
lessons for six weeks. Dennis won that bet and got the bug. Despite coming of
age in the ‘60’s in a part of Chicago that birthed some of the most exciting
sounds and music artists on the planet, Mclain stuck to the safe standard songs of
his father’s generation. The kind of self-accompanied middle of the road organ
material you might hear in a Holiday Inn lounge or elevator.
By his teens Denny
was displaying significant musical talent on the organ concurrent with his
exceptional baseball skills as a pitcher. After graduating from Mt. Carmel High
School in 1962 he was good enough to get signed as an amateur free-agent by the
White Sox. As an organist he had already started to play professional gigs in
and around Chicagoland.
The Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers brought Denny up
through their minor league system and he would debut in the majors at age 19 on
September 21, 1963.
As his star ascended during his first four years with the Tigers, McClain pursued a number of interests and side hustles. He got his private pilot’s license, signed lucrative product endorsement deals
and played road gigs during the baseball season and off.
He
would pitch a game in St. Paul, fly to Chicago, play an Organ gig then wing it home to Detroit for another game.
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| Nehru jacket for a lounge date |
Mclain notably used his baseball accomplishments to secure endorsements with Pepsi and the Hammond Organ Co. also of Chicago Illinois. Denny structured the latter deal to make sure that there was a Hammond Organ delivered to any show he booked from New York to Vegas. All he had to do was show up and play. Hammond also had him lead organ “clinics” at their dealers, his star power on the mound would draw the curious in and the sales staff would sign up these Baseball fans with lessons and low monthly payments. Soon endorsements were making him six figures a year, eclipsing his pitcher’s salary. His last year with the Tigers, Mclain maxed out with a $90,000 salary contract for that 1970 season ($658k in 2022 dollars)
Sadly,
for Denny, old Tiger Stadium in Detroit did not have an Organ for music during
stretches and inning breaks. In fact, it was the only club in the American
League without one. Mclain did not have an opportunity to blend his two talents
at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull… until opening day 1966.
1966 The Hammond Organ Co. comes to Michigan and Trumbull
By early 1966 the Tigers star hurler griped about
the lack of an organ at Tiger Stadium enough that an instrument was installed.
Likely made possible by McLain’s connections, a Hammond Model B3 of the type
favored by blues, jazz and rock artists was installed in the press box. The
first organist to take a turn on the instrument was Bill Fox from the Iroquois
Avenue Christ Lutheran Church. Fox would hold the Hammond seat at the Stadium
until his retirement in 1972. Free Press photos document Bill and the organ and
what appears to be a Hammond brand speaker cabinet. Conspicuously absent is a
Leslie rotating speaker of the kind featured by many pro performing and
recording acts. Considering the acrimonious and contentious relationship
between the Hammond and Leslie Corporations, it may have been a condition of
Hammond to insist only their products appear in this particular product
placement. NO LESLIES ALLOWED! This organ was then likely hard wired into the
stadium P.A. system or a microphone may have placed on the Hammond brand monitoring
speaker. Of course, Mclain could now sit in regularly and play to the cheers of his ball fans.
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| Hammond B-3 Model Organ |
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| Bill Fox at the Tiger Stadium Hammond B-3 - Detroit Free Press |
1968 "The Year of the Pitcher"
1968 was a tumultuous year all over
America and in Detroit and St. Louis the pitchers’ mounds were on fire. That
year both Denny and Cardinal Bob Gibson won their respective league’s MVP and
Cy Young Awards. Time magazine’s September 13,1968 cover entitled, “The
Year of the Pitcher” featured Mclain’s portrait. The very next day, September
14th the Tigers' star hurler became the first major leaguer to
log 30 wins since Dizzy Dean accomplished the feat in 1934. No one has
accomplished the feat since.
So devastating were these pitching talents to
statistics, Major League Baseball had to change their rules to minimize the
wunderkinds’ advantages. For the 1969 season the mound was dropped five inches
to ten and the strike zone also shrank in size.
Capitol Records
On September 16,1968 two days after his 30-win accomplishment,
Denny’s music hustle achieved a milestone when Capitol records released his LP,
“Denny Mclain at the Organ” - ST2881 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYSCBC-eg4&t=374s ). These were the days before accountants
took over the music business and artist and repertoire (AR) men were free to
“roll the dice” with any artist. It is likely though that Capitol hoped
Mclain’s baseball star power would be enough to sell a few units and reduce or
eliminate the promotion budget. Also, Denny was easy and cheap to record, his Vegas lounge filtered spin on "today's hits" certainly wouldn’t mean any production or creative headaches.
History shows this was probably a common two-record
contract with Capitol, home to Frank Sinatra and the U.S. imprint for the
Beatles. Interestingly, the Mclain LP was produced by a guy named Dave Dexter Junior.
Dexter had formerly produced Capitol legends like Count Basie, Peggy Lee, Duke
Ellington, and Frank Sinatra. Infamously, Dave was also the guy in charge of repackaging
EMI’s titles for American release, including those of the Fab Four. Apparently,
Dave mucked up the re-mastering of some of those LPs so much that it caused (at
least partly) his demotion at Capitol. By 1968 he found himself producing instrumental vanity records for sports stars.
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| Louis Armstrong w/ Dave Dexter Junior |
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| Mclain and his Quartet at Tera Shirma Studios |
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| Mclain and the Hammond X-77 at Tera Shirma Studios |
The album was recorded at Ralph Terrana’s Tera
Shirma studios at 15341 Livernois in Detroit. Terrana was a former Motown engineer and a member of the Sunliners. The Sunliners became Rare Earth and Motown developed a new imprint, also called Rare Earth to market their white rock acts. Terrana opened Tera Shirma which became famous
for recording such acts as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul, Funkadelic, The MC5, Frijid Pink and
Rodriguez. In addition to a photo of Denny with the new Hammond X-77, the liner
notes on his debut LP are full of obligatory Hammond propaganda, part of his endorsement contract.
“Denny Mclain at the Organ” sold on the strength of
its novelty to mostly older Americans in a year when the Doors and Cream were topping the charts. In short, it was “Squaresville”… music for elevators. In the end it
became an indulgence with no hits that is today collected by baseball fanatics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYSCBC-eg4&t=374s
Tracks:
SIDE A:
DON'T GIVE UP 1:52
LONELY IS THE NAME 2:17
FOR ME 2:20
THE LOOK OF LOVE 1:57
HURDY GURDY MAN 1:53
EXTRA INNINGS 2:44
SIDE B:
THIS GUY'S IN LOVE WITH YOU 2:39
NICE 'N' EASY 2:21
CHERISH 2:20
BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX 2:15
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS 1:59
ON A CLEAR DAY 1:52
As busy as 1968 was for him, it had been reported
that Denny maintained a calendar of 42 kids coming to his home in Livonia,
Michigan for organ lessons. At the time Mclain was charging the stiff “baseball
star rate” of $3.50 / hour ($28 in 2022).
The X-77
The Hammond Organ Company made sure to leverage
their endorsement contract with Denny to the hilt. In addition to supplying
instruments for road gigs, they were certain he debuted and was photographed with
their latest models. One in particular, new for June 1968, was the X-77. Seemingly
named for a space plane, this new tone wheel beast featured brushed aluminum
legs and an extra tone generator for more harmonic frequencies. For the first time, Laurens Hammond agreed to partner with his former nemesis Don Leslie and offered a matching speaker
cabinet with rotating Leslie technology - the 77L. It was not necessarily a working man’s organ but this “space age” offering had a lot of profit built-in.
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| The Hammond X-77 |
Tigers
Win World Series
The Tigers clinched the World Series on October10,1968 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Although McLain contributed significantly to the regular season, the pitching star of game seven would be series MVP Mickey Lolich. Three days later, Denny flew to New York for an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
At the Ed Sullivan theater The Denny McLain Quartet
would find themselves far down the bill as the top performers on the show were
the Beach Boys (Debuting “Good Vibrations”), Pearl Bailey and Richard Pryor. Micky
Lolich was in attendance and stood for an on camera “Audience bow”. Records
indicate the group performed “Girl from Ipanema”, the recording of which still
survives. If you look closely, you can see Denny’s world series ring pretentiously
displayed. Mclain appears accomplished and confident and is technically good
enough to be “kickin’ pedals” on the Hammond X-77.
Song #1 “Girl from Ipanema” –
The Denny Mclain Quartet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibehUqFlJ_0
For the second unnamed instrumental, Mclain brought out his pitching nemesis Cardinal Bob Gibson. Strangely in the clip that still exists, Bob is totally inaudible playing a cheap knock off Gibson! One can speculate this could have been the result of sabotage or that he was so bad he was dropped from the mix in the audio that was broadcast.
Song #2 “Un-named” - The Denny
Mclain Quartet w/ Bob Gibson from the Cardinals on Guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRjcZOC-4fE
Post ‘68
1969 - The Vegas Strip
Mclain’s 1969 Contract permitted him to play the Tiger Stadium
Hammond Organ when not starting and during the 7th inning stretch only when starting. This year Denny also fulfilled his two album Capitol contract on the road by recording a
live album “Denny McLain in Las Vegas” ST-204, the cheapest
easiest way out of his obligation. Produced again by Dave Dexter Jr. the record
captures Denny and his quartet at their debut gig at the Riviera Hotel (read:
the Riviera Lounge). Although the liner notes read like a sports column, they contain
one conspicuous quote that was paraphrased from his first LP; “I hope that the
fans will remember me as an outstanding professional musician. That is my real
goal in life.” Years later however, Mclain was still sitting on dozens of
copies of “Denny McLain in Las Vegas” stacked in his garage.
Tracks:
Side One:0
More – 2:45
Laura – 3:32
Cute – 1:58
Dreamsville – 3:42
Sunny – 3:05
Side Two:
Medley 3:18
The Girl From Ipanema
Meditation
And We Were Lovers
Girl Talk
What the World Needs Now Is Love
Uptight
Produced by: Dave Dexter Jr.
Engineer: Ray Ranellucci
Guitar: Marty Kallao
Bass: Eddie Kayne, Andy Hallup,
Drums: Tommy Cimino
1970 – Fall from Grace
1970 was looking
pretty good for Denny as he would be starting with his newly negotiated,
astronomic $90K annual salary. However, in
February both Penthouse and Sports Illustrated ran stories about Mclain’s involvement
in bookmaking activities dating back to 1967. Apparently
Mclain was playing more than the organ during his gigs at the Flamingo and
other venues in Las Vegas. By October 1970 Mclain was traded
to the Washington Senators then in 1971 to the Oakland A’s. After the ’72 season
it was the Atlanta Braves that released McLain during spring training on March
26, 1973. He had retired from baseball at 29.
Post
Mclain Organ Music at Tiger Stadium
1972-1982 Dan Greer
When Bill Fox retired in 1972 the
next organist to play the Tiger Stadium Hammond B3 was 38-year-old Dan Greer from
the First Baptist Church of Wayne.
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| Image Courtesy Detroit Free Press 07-16-78 |
Dependent upon the ballpark, management teams thought of the organ as either an amenity, or as in some cases an
offensive weapon. Some organists were “needlers” or “distractors”, others were instructed
solely to entertain and be unobtrusive. Greer’s standing orders from the Tigers conservative G.M. Jim Campbell were to fill the gaps and not play anything “demeaning”. Greer
also held the distinction of having played organ at Olympia for the Red Wings and
Cobo Hall for the Pistons. He played for over a million fans during his tenure at the organ loft at Michigan and Trumbull.
1977 Press box Pyrotechnics
On February the first 1977 construction wiring from a Tiger stadium upgrade project caused a fire on the third level, the location of the press box and organ. The blaze rang three alarms and consumed; "… the entire press level, from first base dugout to past third base." The Free Press further quoted; "Mike Fennell assistant grounds supervisor pointed to a lump of metal and wires and said, "Well there's the organ"." The prized Hammond B3 that Denny Mclain championed was a total loss.
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| Detroit Free Press 02-03-77 - Hugh Grannum |
Fortunately, the fire took place in the off season and a new press box was ready for opening day that April. Hammond came through with a new generation organ, a factory fresh Hammond “Concorde” model. This time the Organization paid $4000 cash for the instrument, a substantial discount off its list price of $7,000 (in $32k in 2022 dollars). The new Concorde was a huge transistorized LSI (large scale integration) semi-conductor beast that debuted at a time when keyboard synthesizers were the new rage. Many musicians began blindly dumping the 350 pound unwieldy Hammond B3 organs in favor of this soulless electronic gadgetry. The Concorde was a self-contained “Swiss Army Knife” of an organ. It featured all the built-in rhythms and blinky lights that any mall walker could want. It also included a novel arpeggiator and even a cassette player for playing along to your Lawrence Welk tapes.
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| Courtesy Detroit Free Press |
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| Dan Greer w the loft mounted Hammond Concorde |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQBskD5usYE
1991 Swan Song - Organ Donor
In 1991 32-Year-old Steve
Schlesing was the organist when word came up from the front office....
Per the Detroit Free Press; "…he was told he was no longer needed because the sound system was old and (because of) budget cuts". Tom Monaghan the Pizza King had spoken. After he banished organ music from his Stadium, the Hammond Concorde was mothballed.
Late that year, Nino Cutraro owner of Metropolitan Music
Cafes and The Ultimate Sports Bar and Grill in Pontiac purchased the organ at auction
for a trivial $1200. In November 1992 the Baseball Hall of Fame accepted it as
a donation with the agreement that Cutraro’s name be displayed with it. Apparently,
there is more than one way to get yourself into Cooperstown.
Today sadly, live music is a rarity in sports and recorded audio panders to pervasive public tastes and attentions spans. In baseball its all about the "Walk-on Song". The history of walk on music and closer entrance tunes can
be traced back to 1971 when Yankee hurler Sparky Lyle used “Pomp and Circumstance”
by Sir Edward Elgar. a.k.a. the “Graduation Recessional”. It was successfully played for him
on the organ at Shea Stadium. https://www.mlb.com/news/how-sparky-lyle-launched-closer-entrance-music-c272813672
Walk-ons became increasingly popular after 1991 and the demise
of live organ at Tiger Stadium. Nowadays its 15-30 seconds of motivation that
is perfect for the short attention spans of most cell phone absorbed ball park
attendees. Walk-ons require no singing, musical participation or instruments, just
an MP3 playlist and a loud P.A. system. Just remember, you probably won't be reminiscing with your Grandkids about them.
Toronto Blue Jays tell us their worst walk up songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p6h9EB6CV4
Leo Early - March 2022
