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 (AL), ...

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 ...

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

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, Pittsburgh Pirates,

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

, and Philadelphia Phillies.

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 school ...

Crown Point, Indiana Crown Point is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 33,899 at the 2020 census. The city was incorporated in 1868. On October 31, 1834, Solon Robinson and his family became the first settlers to ...

, 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 p ...

for the NC State Wolfpack 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 Milwaukee Brewers. 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 The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...

, and the

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) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

. 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 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 1,064 games and 1,072 innings pitched. 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, 2 ...

, 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 and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capacities were 65,358 for foo ...

. He struck out the only batter he faced,

Ryan Langerhans Ryan David Langerhans (born February 20, 1980) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. Langerhans was drafted in the third round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves, and made his debut with them in 2002. H ...

, 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 Bos ...

, 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 The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...

and became an analyst January 2009. He appears on ''

MLB Tonight ''MLB Tonight'' is the signature program that airs on MLB Network and is simulcast on MLB Network Radio. The show offers complete coverage of all Major League Baseball games from 6pm ET – 1am ET during the regular season, and gives news from al ...

'' 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 The 2021 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2021 season. The 117th World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the American League (AL) champion H ...

and 2022 All-Star Game produced by

MLB International MLB International is a division of Major League Baseball primarily responsible for international broadcasts of games. In partnership with DirecTV and MLB Network, it produces and syndicates the All-Star Game, and the World Series, as well as the C ...

, airing in over 200 countries as well as on the American Forces Network. During the 2021 World Series, he worked alongside

Scott Braun Scott Braun is a studio host and reporter for MLB Network and NHL Network. Early life and education Braun was raised in Warren Township, New Jersey and graduated from Watchung Hills Regional High School in 2007. Braun graduated from the Univer ...

, who provided play-by-play, while for the 2022 All Star Game, he worked with

Jason Benetti Jason Benetti (born September 9, 1983) is an American sportscaster. Since 2016, he has been the primary television play-by-play announcer of Chicago White Sox baseball. He is also the alternate play-by-play announcer of Chicago Bulls basketball f ...

Personal life

An avid horse racing 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 Zach Robert Plesac (born January 21, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball at Ball State University. Plesac was selected in the 12th round of the ...

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