William Francis Denehy (born March 31, 1946) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

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 ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. Denehy threw and batted right-handed, stood tall, and weighed .Career Statistics and History
a
Baseball-Reference.com
/ref> He was born in

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...

and attended Middletown Woodrow Wilson High School. The second-ever Middletown

Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

out of high school for a $20,000 bonusHowe News Bureau, ''Boston Red Sox 1983 Organization Book and made his professional debut with the Auburn Mets of the

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

(then Class A) in 1965. He led the league in wins with 13, and the following season won nine of 11 decisions with the Double-A

Williamsport Mets Williamsport is a place name that may refer to the following places in the United States: *Williamsport, Arizona a ghost town and former steamboat landing on the Colorado River. *Williamsport, Indiana *Williamsport, Maryland *Williamsport, Michigan ...

of the Eastern League, compiling a stellar 1.97

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. In 1967, Denehy made 15 Major League appearances for the Mets, dropping seven of eight decisions with an ERA of 4.67. The 1967 Mets finished in tenth and last place, the fifth cellar-dwelling team in the expansion club's six-year history.

Traded for manager Gil Hodges

On November 27, 1967, the Mets traded Denehy to the Washington Senators for the Senators'

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Gil Hodges Gilbert Ray Hodges (''né'' Hodge; April 4, 1924 – April 2, 1972) was an American first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his 18-year career for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. He was widely regarded as t ...

, who was then in the middle of a multi-year contract he had signed as Washington's skipper. The Mets' managerial post was open after the late-season departure of

Wes Westrum Wes or WES may refer to: * Westmorland, county in England, Chapman code __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Wes (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Wes Madiko (1964–2021), Cameroonian musi ...

, and team officials began negotiations with the Senators to release Hodges from his contract, which still had a year to run. Hodges was a New York baseball legend as the power-hitting and

Gold Glove The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

-fielding

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

for the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

of the 1950s. He had become a year-round resident of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and in the twilight of his playing career was an original Met, starting at first base in their maiden NL game in 1962. On May 23, 1963, the Mets had traded Hodges to Washington for

centerfielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the ce ...

Jimmy Piersall James Anthony Piersall (November 14, 1929 – June 3, 2017) was an American baseball center fielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five teams, from 1950 through 1967. Piersall was best known for his well-publicized ba ...

, and Hodges immediately retired as an active player to become the Senators' manager. Although the expansion-era Senators had themselves never posted a winning record since their 1961 inception, the team had shown steady season-to-season improvement since Hodges' appointment as manager. During the three-week-long winter interleague trading period then in effect, the Mets agreed to send Denehy and $100,000 as compensation for Washington's release of Hodges from his contract.

Career with Senators, Tigers

While Hodges brought home an improved, but still ninth-place, Mets' team in 1968, Denehy pitched in only three

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

for the 1968 Senators and spent most of the season in the minor leagues. The following season, Denehy remained in Triple-A and was traded in June to the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

' organization. Meanwhile, in his second year as the Mets' manager, Hodges led the " 1969 Miracle Mets" to the team's first

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 s ...

and

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 ...

championships. Denehy returned to the Majors with the 1971 Detroit Tigers, appearing in 31 games, all but one of them in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, compiling an 0–3 mark with an ERA of 4.22 in 49 innings. All told, Denehy appeared in 49 Major League

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

, winning one and losing ten (.091) with an ERA of 4.56 in 104 innings pitched. He retired after the 1973 season.

Coaching career

For two seasons (1981–1982), Denehy served as the

pitching coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

for the Double-A

Bristol Red Sox The Bristol Red Sox baseball club was an American minor league baseball franchise. Based in Bristol, Connecticut, it was the Double-A Eastern League farm system affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for ten seasons (1973–82) and played at Muzzy Fi ...

. In the 1983 season, he served a third season as pitching coach in the Red Sox minor league system, this time with the Red Sox new affiliate, the

New Britain Red Sox New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

(now the

Hartford Yard Goats The Hartford Yard Goats are a Minor League Baseball team based in Hartford, Connecticut. The Yard Goats, which play in the Eastern League, are the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. The team was founded in 2016 when the New Britain R ...

). From the start of the 1985 season until the middle of the 1987 season, Denehy was the head college baseball coach of the Hartford Hawks. Following an April 1987 game against

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

in which two bench-clearing brawls broke out, Denehy was fired for making inflammatory remarks made about Connecticut's team and Connecticut assistant coach Mitch Pietras. Under Denehy, the Hawks had a 17–79 record.

Retirement

Denehy has also worked in

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

, television and radio and taught

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. Denehy began losing his eyesight in 2005 and, , is legally blind with no vision in his right eye and

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

and macular holes in his left. He has received multiple grants from the

Baseball Assistance Team The Baseball Assistance Team is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization affiliated with Major League Baseball. The organization's mission is to "confidentially support members of the ''Baseball Family'' in need of assistance." The baseball family inc ...

to assist in paying for eye surgeries as he is ineligible for a

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

from Major League Baseball under pre-1980 rules.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denehy, Bill 1946 births Living people Auburn Mets players Baseball players from Connecticut Bristol Red Sox players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Hartford Hawks baseball coaches Detroit Tigers players Jacksonville Suns players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Blues players New York Mets players Sportspeople from Middletown, Connecticut Portland Beavers players Reading Phillies players Tidewater Tides players Toledo Mud Hens players Tucson Toros players Washington Senators (1961–1971) players Williamsport Mets players