Former Royals pitcher Bruce Dal Canton dies

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Former Royals pitcher Bruce Dal Canton, who turned a good showing at a tryout camp into a major-league career, died Tuesday in Carnegie, Pa., of esophageal cancer. He was 66.

Dal Canton was one of the building blocks of the early Royals, coming to the team for the 1971 season in a trade that also included shortstop Fred Patek. He pitched for the Royals during 1971-75, compiling a 26-37 record with the club.

“He was a great addition,” said Al Fitzmorris, whose career overlapped Dal Canton’s with the Royals. “He was a pitcher with great stuff who really never got a chance to pitch as much as he should have.

“When he came over, we were in dire need of all types of pitching. Bruce was a very valuable part of the team and some of the growth the Royals experienced at that time. He had been part of a team that had played winning baseball.”

Dal Canton had been 9-4 on the 1970 Pirates team that won the NL East.

He reached the major leagues in 1967 after making a last-ditch effort at a Pirates tryout camp when he was teaching high school.

With the Royals, he found himself fighting for a spot in the regular rotation with Dick Drago, Steve Busby, Paul Splittorff, Wally Bunker and Bob Johnson.

“He turned himself into a great knuckleballer,” Fitzmorris said. “But the staff was somewhat set. He became a spot starter. He and I were in the same boat, kind of the fifth or sixth man in a four-man rotation.”

Dal Canton went 51-49 with a 3.67 ERA during 1967-77 with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Atlanta and the Chicago White Sox.

| Star News Services

Posted on Thu, Oct. 09, 2008 10:15 PM

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