Bud Daley

From BR Bullpen

Leavitt Leo Daley

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.

Debut September 10, 1955
Final Game August 26, 1964
Born October 7, 1932 in Orange, CA USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Before the 1951 season Bud Daley signed as an amateur free agent with the Cleveland Indians. The 18 year old left hander would spend his first season with the class C Bakersfield Indians, he appeared in 25 games, winning 9 and losing 10 with a 5.54 ERA.

Bud would spend the next four seasons in the minors with the Cedar Rapids Indians, Reading Indians, Indianapolis Indians and the PCL Sacramento Solons, where in 1954 he would win 18 games with a 3.44 ERA and in 1955 win 13 with a 2.80 ERA and get a late season look by the Cleveland Indians going 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA.

He would spend most of 1956 in the American Association with the AAA Indianapolis Indians, pitching 105 innings and winning 11 while losing only 1 with a 2.31 ERA and again would get another look in Cleveland going 1-0 this time with a 6.20 ERA.

Bud would start the 1957 season with the San Diego Padres, go 3-0 with an 0.83 ERA and be called up to the Indians for one more chance. He didn't do so well, going 2-8 with a 3.75 ERA and was packaged up with Dick Williams and Gene Woodling and traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Larry Doby and Don Ferrarese. In two weeks, April 17, 1958, the Orioles moved him to the Kansas City Athletics for Arnie Portocarrero.

Bud would become the ace of the lowly Kansas City Athletics staff, winning 16 games in both 1959 and 1960 and taking part in the All-Star Game both years. Although he was a lefty chucker, he was probably best remembered for for his withered right arm. "Thats because I was an instrument baby," said Daly in the book Sixty One, written by Tony Kubek with Terry Pluto. "When the doctor took me out of my mother's womb, the instrument slipped and pinched a nerve in my right shoulder. For the first six months of my life, my arm was paralyzed."

A junk ball pitcher, who threw a roundhouse curve and a knuckler, Bud went from the Athletics to the Yankees on June 14, 1961, for pitcher Art Ditmar and outfielder-third baseman Deron Johnson. Over the course of the 1961 and 1962 World Championship seasons he went 15-14 for the Bombers, mostly as a starter. He won the pennant clinching game in 1961 and in the World Series that year he was the winning pitcher in the fifth and final game over Cincinnati, working the final seven innings in long relief of starter Ralph Terry. Overall he allowed no runs in eight innings in three Series appearances.

An arm ailment cut short his mound career at age 31 in 1964. Leavitt Leo Daly closed out his 10 year major league run with a 60-64 record, appearing in 248 games, pitching 967 innings with a 4.03 ERA. Bud had spent 14 seasons in pro baseball, 1951 through 1964, and had done a lot of work in the minors, appearing in 216 games, winning 82 and losing 57 while pitching 1,206 innings and wound up with a 3.38 career ERA.

When Bud and Pete Daley where batterymates in Kansas City, they were know as the only "Daley Double" in baseball. Bud moved to Lander, WY where he and his wife Dorothy, owned B&D Sprinklers, a lawn sprinkler company. As of this date (January 2009) they are retired in Riverton, WY.