Daniel Thomas Plesac (born February 4, 1962) is a 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 (A ...

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 dr ...

with an 18-year career from 1986 to 2003. He played for the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

, Arizona Diamondbacks, and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

Early life

Plesac attended

Crown Point High School Crown Point High School (CPHS) is a 9-12 public school located in Crown Point, Indiana, United States. It is the only high school in the Crown Point Community School Corporation. Academics CPHS is accredited by AdvancED. For the 2021-2022 schoo ...

in Crown Point, Indiana, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track. Plesac played

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 pl ...

for the

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ( Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college foot ...

in the early 1980s. Plesac was inducted to the North Carolina State Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Major Leagues

A hard thrower with a mid-90 mph fastball and great slider, Plesac was originally a starting pitcher before becoming the closer of the

. Plesac served primarily as a left-handed specialist from the mid-1990s until the end of his career, pitching for the Blue Jays twice, the Diamondbacks, and the Phillies. He was elected to the American League All-Star team three times (1987, 1988 and 1989) and ended his career with a 65–71 record, a 3.64 ERA in 1,064 games and 1,072

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning ...

. In 1988, Plesac recorded three saves against the Twins in a weekend series immediately preceding the 1988 All Star Game in Cincinnati. Due to travel complications, he flew to Cincinnati on the Reds team chartered plane. Plesac holds numerous all-time Brewers pitching records (minimum 500 innings pitched). He is the franchise's career leader in games, saves and ERA. He is second in K/9 and WHIP (BB + H/IP), in both cases to

Ben Sheets Ben Michael Sheets (born July 18, 1978) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, and Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. Sheets is a four-time MLB All-Star (2001, 2004, 20 ...

, and is fifth in K/BB ratio. He was the last Phillies pitcher to pitch at

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street (Philadelphia), Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capa ...

. He struck out the only batter he faced, Ryan Langerhans, to record the third out in the top of the ninth inning on September 28, 2003, as the Phillies lost to the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

, 5–2. In his 18 year career, Plesac was never on the disabled list, never having surgery in or off season.

Television career

Plesac worked as a news telecaster for

Comcast Sportsnet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

Chicago, co-hosting as a highlighter for Chicago Cubs and pre and post game shows from 2005 until the end of the 2008 season. Plesac joined the MLB Network and became an analyst January 2009. He appears on '' MLB Tonight'' and is an occasional guest host for '' Intentional Talk''. He also served as a broadcaster for the MLB: The Show video game franchise. Plesac served as color commentator for the world feed of the 2021 World Series and 2022 All-Star Game produced by MLB International, airing in over 200 countries as well as on the

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which ...

. During the 2021 World Series, he worked alongside Scott Braun, who provided play-by-play, while for the 2022 All Star Game, he worked with Jason Benetti.

Personal life

An avid

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

fan, Plesac became a horse trainer after retirement and once saved an old horse he previously owned after learning it was left in poor condition. His nephew is Zach Plesac.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plesac, Dan 1962 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada American League All-Stars Arizona Diamondbacks players Baseball players from Gary, Indiana Chicago Cubs announcers Chicago Cubs players El Paso Diablos players Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball pitchers Milwaukee Brewers players MLB Network personalities NC State Wolfpack baseball players Paintsville Brewers players Philadelphia Phillies players Pittsburgh Pirates players Stockton Ports players Toronto Blue Jays players Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players