Daniel Miceli (born September 9, 1970) is an American former

major league baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

Early career

Miceli began playing baseball during his senior year at Dr. Phillips High School in Florida where he was teammates with Brian Barber and won a single game as a pitcher. Miceli received an offer to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

at Polk Community College and was not selected in the

Major League Baseball draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

. He signed with the Kansas City Royals after seeing an advertisement for an open tryout in the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

''. Miceli never saw time at the major league level for Kansas City. Instead, he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates (July 31, 1993) with

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Jon Lieber Jonathan Ray Lieber (born April 2, 1970) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He stands tall and weighs . He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1994–1998), Chicago Cubs (1999–2002 and 2008), ...

in exchange for pitcher

Stan Belinda Stanley Peter Belinda (born August 6, 1966) is a former Major League Baseball player. A right-handed relief pitcher who also batted right-handed, Belinda is tall and weighs 187 pounds. He pitched from a three-quarters arm slot (sometimes categor ...

. Miceli made his major league debut on his birthday, September 9, 1993. The Pirates tried Miceli as both a starter and in the bullpen, but the

right-hander In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

found his niche as a reliever, collecting a career high 21 saves in 1995. Unfortunately, Miceli battled a high

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

in Pittsburgh, a tendency that has followed him throughout his career. The Pirates then traded Miceli to the Detroit Tigers (November 1, 1996) for pitcher

Clint Sodowsky Clint Rea Sodowsky (born July 13, 1972) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks, and St. Louis Cardinals. Sodowsky was drafted ...

. Miceli's stint in the Motor City was short, but productive, recording over 82 innings all in relief. The oft-traded reliever was moved once again to the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

with fellow pitcher Donne Wall and minor leaguer Ryan Balfe, for

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

Trey Beamon Clifford "Trey" Beamon (born February 11, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player. He spent three seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a left fielder and right fielder. Beamon bats from the left side, throws with his right ...

and reliever

Tim Worrell Timothy Howard Worrell (born July 5, 1967) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. A right-hander, he pitched all or parts of 14 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as a relief pitcher. During his major league career, Worrell ...

. Miceli was an important piece of the Padres' 1998

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

Champion team. An ineffective 1999 campaign saw Miceli on the move again, this time to the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fran ...

Frequent Flyer Miles

From 2000 through 2005, Miceli's services were sought by contenders and non-contenders alike, as teams attempted to fill vacancies in their bullpen. Miceli made stops in Florida,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, New York,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

(three times),

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

and even an overseas stay in Japan as member of the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

. On July 29, 2003, Miceli became part of the Astros relief corps. In 2004, Miceli went 6-6 with a respectable 3.59 ERA, and made career highs in games (74) and strikeouts (83). Miceli also made his second postseason trip that season, coming within a game of another

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

berth. While he was a significant bullpen contributor during the regular season, he pitched poorly in the postseason. Particularly, in the NLCS he posted a 27.00 ERA in only 1.1 innings pitched and received losses in two crucial games. In contrast to his solid 2004 season, his performance in Japan was one of the worst in his career, losing 2 consecutive games to the

Hiroshima Toyo Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda ...

and

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its curren ...

, which were his first two games. This resulted in him becoming the player released after the shortest amount of time (4 games) in Giants' history. On January 12, 2006, the journeyman signed on with his tenth team, the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home ve ...

, agreeing to a two-year deal. Part of a closer by committee system in Tampa, Miceli earned four saves and held opponents to a .217

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. A majority of Miceli's season was lost due to a right shoulder injury. The veteran righty entered as a candidate for the Rays' closer in 2007. Poor results during spring training cost the well traveled reliever a spot on Tampa Bay's forty-man roster, and on March 29, Miceli was released from the team. In 631 career games, Miceli had a 43-52 record, with 4.48 ERA. He collected 632 strikeouts, and 310 walks in just over 700 innings pitched. Miceli also had 39 career saves, and had two

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

in 22 at-bats.

Boston Red Sox

On January 22, 2008, Miceli signed with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

on a minor league contract with invitation to spring training. He announced his retirement on March 1, 2008.Red Sox Transactions , SoxProspects.com
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Long Island Ducks

Despite announcing his retirement, Miceli joined the Long Island Ducks for the 2009 season.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miceli, Dan 1970 births Living people American people of Italian descent Baseball players from Newark, New Jersey Long Island Ducks players Pittsburgh Pirates players Texas Rangers players Detroit Tigers players Tampa Bay Devil Rays players New York Yankees players San Diego Padres players Major League Baseball pitchers American expatriate baseball players in Japan Yomiuri Giants players Colorado Rockies players Florida Marlins players Cleveland Indians players Houston Astros players Carolina Mudcats players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Gulf Coast Marlins players Brevard County Manatees players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players 2006 World Baseball Classic players Dr. Phillips High School alumni