<table> </table> Former Royals pitcher <strong>Bruce Dal Canton</strong>, 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.</p><p>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 <strong>Fred Patek</strong>. He pitched for the Royals during 1971-75, compiling a 26-37 record with the club.</p><p>&#8220;He was a great addition,&#8221; said <strong>Al Fitzmorris</strong>, whose career overlapped Dal Canton&#8217;s with the Royals. &#8220;He was a pitcher with great stuff who really never got a chance to pitch as much as he should have.</p><p>&#8220;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.&#8221;</p><p>Dal Canton had been 9-4 on the 1970 Pirates team that won the NL East.</p><p>He reached the major leagues in 1967 after making a last-ditch effort at a Pirates tryout camp when he was teaching high school.</p><p>With the Royals, he found himself fighting for a spot in the regular rotation with <strong>Dick Drago, Steve Busby, Paul Splittorff</strong>, <strong>Wally Bunker </strong>and <strong>Bob Johnson</strong>.</p><p>&#8220;He turned himself into a great knuckleballer,&#8221; Fitzmorris said. &#8220;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.&#8221;</p><p>Dal Canton went 51-49 with a 3.67 ERA during 1967-77 with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Atlanta and the Chicago White Sox.