Pete Daley

Peter Harvey Daley

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 195 lb.
• High School Grass Valley High School
• Debut May 3, 1955
• Final Game October 1, 1961
• Born January 14, 1930 in Grass Valley, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Before the 1948 season Pete Daley signed as an amateur free agent with the Boston Red Sox. The 18-year-old catcher spent his first season with the class C San Jose Red Sox appearing in 47 games and hitting for a .225 average.

He played for the class B Roanoke Red Sox in 1949, got into 121 games and hit .295. 1950 saw him with the class A Scranton Miners, playing 35 games and hitting .243. He also spent time in 1950 with the AAA Louisville Colonels, appearing in 62 games and hitting .263.

His career was interrupted for two years in 1951 and 1952 by military service in the United States Army during the Korean War. He was posted in Japan for a time during his service. He was discharged in 1953 and married soon after.

He spent the next two seasons in the American Association with the AAA Louisville Colonels, appearing in 84 games with a .256 batting average in 1953, and catching 115 games and hitting .275 in 1954.

Pete got his chance in the majors with the Boston Red Sox in 1955, appearing in 17 games and hitting .220. He fielded flawlessly in the catcher's job, not committing an error. Pete's performance kept him with the Red Sox through the 1959 season. He was then traded on December 3rd to the Kansas City Athletics for Tom Sturdivant.

Daley was with the Athletics for the 1960 season, appearing in 73 games, hitting .263 and fielding the catcher's position at a .990 pace. However, on December 14th, he was drafted by the "new" Washington Senators in the 1960 expansion draft.

Pete spent the 1961 season, his last in the majors, with the Senators, catching in 72 outings, hitting .192 and again fielding his job with near perfection with a percentage of .988. Pete spent seven years in the majors, appearing in 391 contests, hitting at a .239 average and making only eleven errors in his career for a .993 percentage.

At age 32 Daley played one more season of pro baseball. He spent 1962 with the Raleigh Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs where he hit for a combined .258 average and fielded at a .994 percentage. Pete had spent 13 seasons in pro baseball from 1948 through 1962. His minor league work sheet shows he appeared in 537 games, with 1797 at bats and 480 base hits, including 44 home runs, for a minor league career .267 average.

After baseball Pete managed a bowling alley for a time, then went into sales for the Schick Razor Company and later the English Leather Company. As of January 2009, he had retired to Newbury Park, California.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page

Further Reading

• John Green: "Pete Daley", in Mark Armour and Bill Nowlin, eds.: Red Sox Baseball in the Days of Ike and Elvis: The Red Sox of the 1950s, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2012, pp. 117-123. ISBN 978-1933599243

Related Sites

• Pete Daley at the SABR Bio Project