Danny McDevitt

Who was Danny McDevitt?

Daniel Eugene "Danny" McDevitt was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1957 through 1962 for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Athletics. He was born in New York City.

McDevitt was born in 1932 in Manhattan. He relocated together with his family to Hallstead, Pennsylvania, where he was a star player on his high school baseball team. He attended St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York, but dropped out after he was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in September 1951. He was released by the Yankees and served in the United States Army during the Korean War before being signed by the Dodgers after the completion of his military service.

McDevitt is most remembered as the starting pitcher for the Dodgers' last home game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on September 24, 1957, during his first season in the major leagues, in which McDevitt pitched a 2–0 shutout over the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of a crowd of 6,702, in a game in which he recorded nine strikeouts and gave up five hits. He finished the 1957 season with a 7–4 record, along with 90 strikeouts and an earned run average of 3.25. In October, just weeks after what turned out to be the team's final game in Brooklyn, owner Walter O'Malley announced that the Dodgers would be moving to Los Angeles.