Late comer to professional baseball…Signed by the Pirates near
age 24 while pitching in a Pa. amateur league…At the time he was a science
teacher at local high school…Made debut for the Pirates the following year…returned
to the minors for 1968 and earned a second call up to the Bucs…up to that point
had a 1.98 ERA in 41 big league innings….Became a regular reliever for the
Pirates in 1969 leading the pitching staff in games…Did earn some spot starts
in 1970 but ERA ballooned and lost out closer role to Dave Giusti… ….Subsequently
shipped to KC as part of the Fred Patek
deal…Gained starter status with the Royals in 1971….Up to this point did have
an impressive career win-loss pct; high water mark was July 5th when
he was 28-11 in 324 innings pitched with a 3.31 ERA….The following 3 years alternated
bullpen and starter….never was able to get 10 wins in a season…best season was
1974 with a 3.13 ERA in 175 inning…also led AL in wild pitches and HRs
surrendered per 9 innings…a very poor start in 1975 resulted in trade to
Atlanta…passable performance with the Braves with 3.41 ERA in 140 innings over almost two
seasons…finished up with the ChiSox…career win loss was 51-49….was a coach in
Braves system for 26 years starting 1982…Died from esophageal cancer in October of 2008.
A high school science teacher? That's pretty cool :)
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like "The Rookie" although Dal Canton is considerably younger than the Tampa Bay pitcher. I like that he came out of some amateur league. In the Minnesota county I grew up in every small township had a team in a league. I don't get that feeling in Wisconsin. This is why I think Minnesota is a better baseball state than Wisconsin.
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