Bud Daley, whose relief appearance in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series boosted the New York Yankees to a series-clinching victory over the Cincinnati Reds, died on Tuesday, the Yankees announced. He was 92.
During a 10-year major league career Daley played for the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics and the Yankees. He pitched for two World Series-winning Yankee teams, in 1961 and 1962, and was an All-Star for Kansas City in 1959 and 1960 — a period during which the American and National Leagues staged two All-Star games each year.
Daley's finest hour came on Oct. 9, 1961. Needing one win to clinch a championship, Ralph Terry started for the Yankees and allowed three runs and six hits in 2.1 innings against the Cincinnati Reds. Daley took over in the third inning at Crosley Field and, remarkably, finished the game himself.
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Thanks to Daley's 6.2 innings in which he allowed only two runs (none earned), the Yankees beat the Reds 13-5.
Daley returned the following year and made 43 appearances for the Yankees. In the World Series, he made one relief appearance against the San Francisco Giants and did not allow a run in Game 2 at Candlestick Park.
Daley went 60-64 with a 4.03 ERA in 248 career games (116 starts) from 1955-64.
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A native of Orange, California, Daley was raised in a rural area near San Diego. He never played in an organized baseball game until he got to Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, yet by his senior year he was a standout in the outfield (.450 batting average) and on the pitcher's mound (11-1 won-lost record).
Scouted by 14 of the 16 major-league teams. Daley chose to sign with the Cleveland Indians because Indians pitcher Bob Lemon, a future Hall of Famer, also graduated from Wilson High.
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Daley spent parts of five seasons in the minor leagues (1951-55) before reaching the majors with Cleveland in Sept. 1955. He split the next two seasons between Cleveland and their Triple-A Indianapolis affiliate.
In 1958, the Indians traded Daley and outfielders Dick Williams and Gene Woodling to the Baltimore Orioles for Larry Doby and Don Ferrarese. But Daley made just one spring training appearance for the O's before he was traded two weeks later to Kansas City for right-handed pitcher Arnie Portocarrero.
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Daley would go 39-39 with a 3.93 ERA in Kansas City. He made both AL All-Star teams in 1959 (when he went 16-13) and 1960 (16-16), before being traded to New York in June 1961 for Art Ditmar and Deron Johnson.
Daley would later say he learned he was traded when a teammate accidentally eavesdropped on a phone call between A's owner Charlie Finley and Yankees GM Roy Hamey orchestrating the deal.
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Daley moved to Wyoming in 1975. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, four children, eight grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.
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