Dan Quisenberry

At 45 years old, Dan Quisenberry has this physical status:

Daniel Raymond "Quiz" Quisenberry (February 7, 1953-1998) was an American right-handed relief pitcher who played mainly for the Kansas City Royals.

He was known for his submarine-style pitching delivery and his comedic numbers, but he retired in 1990 with 244 saves, his highest figure in major league history. Dan Quisenberry has the lowest base on balls per innings pitched in the major leagues since the 1920s, with the worst ratio for any pitcher to pitch since the 1800s, except for Deacon Phillippe and Babe Adams.

Early life

Quisenberry was born in Santa Monica, California, and he was born to Quisenberry. His name isn't the name of a fruit, but it's the English mutation of the German surname Questenberg, a village in Saxony-Anhalt. His parents divorced when he was 7 years old, and his mother remarried Art Meola, a Rockwell International engineer who urged him and his older brother to play baseball. Quisenberry played baseball at Costa Mesa High School/Middle School. He was named team MVP in 1973, while attending Orange Coast College. He was then recruited by the University of La Verne, a Church of the Brethren college, where he met his future wife, Janie Howard, while attending a class in square dancing.

Personal life

Quisenberry and his wife lived in Kansas City. They had two children, Alysia Quisenberry Carter and David Quisenberry. The Harvesters Food Bank was aided by the family.

Quisenberry was religious. Quisenberry, who was once regarded as a hothead, praised his wife as well as Christianity for calming him down.

Quisenberry became a poet after his baseball career came to an end, publishing three poems in 1995 and a book of poetry titled On Days Like This in 1998. He was also one of baseball's most quotable characters, with bon phrases such as "I found a flaw" and "I've seen the future and it's much like the present, but shorter." (The latter quote had been released verbatim nearly two decades ago, but not necessarily.)

Quisenberry stopped a snowboarding holiday in Colorado in January 1998 due to headaches, dizzy spells, and blurred vision. Quisenberry was diagnosed with grade IV astrocytoma, a severe form of brain cancer. He died in Leawood, Kansas, at the age of 45.

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Career

Quisenberry signed as an amateur free agent for a Class A team in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1975, and played in his first game. He was promoted to the Double-A team in Jacksonville, Florida, at the end of the season. He worked at a sporting goods store during the day and a mortuary at night. He obtained a teaching degree at Fresno Pacific University, which was affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren Church, in the case that his baseball career wasn't fruitful.

He made his major league debut with the Kansas City Royals against the Chicago White Sox on July 8, 1979, pitching 2+227 runs and leaving just two hits and no walks. Quisenberry appeared in 32 games and set a 3–2 record with a 3.15 earned run average and five saves.

Jim Frey, a manager in 1980, recommended that Quisenberry learn the submarine-style delivery from Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Kent Tekulve to confuse hitters because he could not beat them with a fastball. Quisenberry was the American League's most effective closer during the 1981 season, with the exception of the strike-shortened 1981 season). He had an ERA of 2.45 years and won the Rolaids Relief Man Award each season during that time. During this time, he also placed in the top ten percent of voting for the Cy Young Award.

Quisenberry, unlike many of his peers, was not a fastball player and, as a result, he was forced to rely on pinpoint control, guile, and deception, which was increased by the submarine delivery that he first used in 1980. His primary pitch, a sinking fastball, causes hitters to touch the ball on the ground rather than in the air. He also threw a curveball, a 1984 changeup, and the occasional knuckleball. Despite the fact that Quisenberry was not a strikeout pitcher (averaging only 3.3 strikeouts per nine innings during his career), he made up for his indefiency by never walking batters or throwing wild pitches. His 45 saves in 1983 set a single-season record (tied by Bruce Sutter in 1984 and 1986 by Dave Righetti), and tied for the first time by Greg Holland in 1993, a record that was matched by Jeff Montgomery in 1993 and exceeded in 2013 by Greg Holland. Quisenberry was the first pitcher in major league history to win more than 40 games in a season twice in his career. He won a World Series with the Royals in 1985 and was the winning pitcher of Game 6, which was infamous for Don Denkinger's blown call at first base.

In 1983, the Royals signed Quisenberry to a lifetime deal, similar to George Brett's. However, Quisenberry's relegation to middle relief and mop-up service got off to a rocky start in 1988. He was released by the Royals shortly before the All-Star break. The St. Louis Cardinals, now owned by former Royals manager Whitey Herzog, has signed Quisenberry as a free agent. Quisenberry came to the San Francisco Giants in 1990 after pitching for a year and a half in St. Louis. He strained his rotator cuff just five times into the 1990 season; this was his first serious injury of his career. Quisenberry retired from baseball in 1990 with 244 saves, the fifth most major league total ever.

Quisenberry received 18 votes in the 1996 Baseball Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, just below the 24 percent cut-off to remain on the ballot. Bruce Sutter, a pitcher with remarkably similar overall results, received 137 votes in the 2006 election; Sutter went on to be named to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Expansion Era Committee, which reexamines overlooked actors from 1973 to present, awarded Quisenberry's Hall of Fame in 2013, but the 16-member panel received only 12 votes.

Quisenberry, along with Sutter and Rich Gossage, was instrumental in the transition from relief ace to Tony La Russa ninth inning closer.

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