Horse Hide Hauler
Honoring Detroit Tigers Pitcher Denny McLain

• Original year: 1969
• Company: AMT
• Scale: 1/25
• Designer: David Wilder

Featuring "pintail" and "squaretail" surfboards, custom-styled tilt-up van body, tubular "funny car" type frame, four-wheel independent suspension, hot "351" Ford engine, optional coach lamps, see-through roof panel, authentic "bucket" seats, "bubble" taillights and rear window, "tapper" fuel keg, electrically operated rack-and-pinion steering, four hollow vinyl tires.

Dave's comments:

First issued in the summer of 1969 after McLain's incredible '68 season, AMT re-packaged it later in '69 as the fun lovin' Surf 'N Van.

Now, some words on Mr. McLain:

Has anyone in sports ever soared so high and crashed so hard? OK, OJ Simpson did, but he served only a year for a double-murder! This guy was an awesome pitcher--my grandfather used to say he was the best since "Fireball" Bob Feller. Read this summary and these two excerpts from the news. It's maddening:

Born: Mar. 29, 1944 Baseball RHP last pitcher to win 30 games (1968); 2-time Cy Young winner (1968-69) with Detroit; convicted of racketeering, extortion and drug possession in 1985, served 29 months of 25-year jail term, sentence overturned when court ruled he had not received a fair trial; he has faced subsequent legal troubles.

But that's not all......

McLain begins paying restitution to embezzled pension fund
September 12, 1999
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retirees from defunct Peet Packing Co. are beginning to receive compensation from former Detroit Tigers pitching ace Denny McLain, who was convicted of stealing $2.5 million from their pension fund. "We received our first significant payment from Denny McLain this week," said attorney Mark Steckloff, who represents the pension fund. "It is $42,711, which represents McLain's major league baseball pension payments from April 1998 through September of 1999."

Oh you need more?.....

Ex-Tiger McLain locked down in Pennsylvania
November 19, 1998
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Denny McLain's troubles didn't stop when he went to prison. Major league baseball's last 30-game winner has spent the last four months locked up 23 hours a day at a federal prison in Pennsylvania because of administrative rules, according to his lawyer. McLain, 54, is facing trial in White Plains on federal charges that he took part in a scheme involving fraudulent phone cards. John A. "Junior" Gotti, son of the imprisoned boss of the Gambino crime family, also took part in the fraud, prosecutors allege.

There's more, but you get the point. I even found some of the pension IOUs in this kit.