Science Hill High School

Joe McClain

Joe McClain 1951

Long before he got the first-ever victory for the Washington Senators franchise that became the Texas Rangers, Joe McClain was all-conference in football, baseball and track at Science Hill. He still holds a state record in the javelin (the event's been eliminated).

"I didn't know what a javelin was when (coach) Sid Smallwood asked me to start throwing," McClain said. "But I think I won all five events where I threw one."

Science Hill’s '49 baseball team won 18 straight at one point, and won the Southeast Region, which involved state tournament teams from seven states.

McClain attended Milligan before beginning10-year career in pro baseball. He played for the Senators two seasons (1961-62). He led the Senators with 212 innings in '61 and finished with a 3.86 ERA. He pitched two shutouts, had eight victories and a save. He drove in four runs and had four doubles while hitting a respectable .206 for a pitcher. McClain pitched in 10 games in 1962.

It was all a considerable feat when considering McClain says he lost some 5-7 mph before he reached the majors. It happened at the end of a day-night doubleheader. He pitched in the afternoon, then played that night in the outfield, where his elbow popped on a throw. Upper-80s velocity was the result, not to mention countless cortisone shots.

"It'd been nice to get up there throwing the way I was capable of early," McClain said. "I had to become a junk-ball pitcher. But I can't complain."

Indeed, he got to pitch against Mantle, Maris, Howard, Killebrew and Kaline.

"I got stiff-necked watching some go out of the park," McClain said. "I don't think Maris hit a home run off of me, but Mantle hit four. I struck him out twice one game and he hit two home runs that game. It was (feast or famine).

"And I couldn't ket Al Kaline out. He was good for two hits if I was pitching."

But McClain's 3.86 ERA suggests he wasn't those players' ticket to the Hall of Fame.

"I got to meet them, I got to play against them and occasionally I got them out," McClain said. "I did OK. I believe I got a $4,000 raise after the 1961 season. But those cortisone shots finally shot my arm completely."