Dennis Patrick Leonard (born May 8, 1951) is a former pitcher for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He retired in 1986 due to injuries. Born in

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 ...

, Leonard attended

Oceanside High School Oceanside High School (California) is an American public secondary school located in Oceanside, California. It is part of the Oceanside Unified School District. History and Campus Oceanside High School is one of two high schools in the Oceanside ...

on Long Island, then played college baseball for and graduated from

Iona College Iona University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Roman Catholic university with a main campus in New Rochelle, New York. It was founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and occupies a campus of in New Rochell ...

. He was drafted by the Royals in the second round of the 1972 draft and made his major league debut on September 4, 1974. In 1975, his first full year with the Royals, he achieved a 15-7 record. Leonard later recorded three 20-win seasons, to become the only pitcher in Royals history to do it. He started nine post-season games for the Royals between 1976 and 1981, ending with a record of 3-5, including a 1-1 record in the

1980 World Series The 1980 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) season. The 77th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion 1980 Philadelphia Phill ...

against the

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 ...

. From 1975 to 1981, Leonard won 130 games, the most by any right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Towards the end of his career, Leonard missed most of the remaining seasons due to knee injuries. His final season was in 1986, where he ended up with an 8-13 record. Besides his rookie season of 1974, this was his only season with a losing record. Leonard finished his career as the Royals’ all-time leader in complete games (103) and shutouts (23), and was second in wins (144). He also held the club's single-season bests in starts (40), complete games (21), innings pitched (294.2) and strikeouts (244).

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*Career statistics and player information fro
Baseball-Reference
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Baseball-Reference (Minors)

1951 births Living people American League wins champions Baseball players from New York (state) Fort Myers Royals players Fort Myers Sun Sox players Gulf Coast Royals players Iona Gaels baseball players Kansas City Royals players Kingsport Royals players Lobos de Arecibo players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Chicks players Omaha Royals players People from Oceanside, New York Sportspeople from Brooklyn Baseball players from New York City Waterloo Royals players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub

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