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Bennie Daniels
Washington Senators
Pitcher
Born: June 17, 1932, Tuscaloosa, AL
Signed: Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent, July 1951
Major League Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates 1957-1960; Washington Senators 1961-1965
Bennie Daniels had his professional baseball career paused for a few years while he was serving in the Army during the Korean War in 1953 and 1954. He'd get the call to the Majors from the Pirates in September 1957, beginning his nine-year Major League career. For his debut, Daniels was the final opposing pitcher to ever start a game at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field before the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles. Daniels pitched seven strong innings, but the the Pirates lost to the Dodgers, 2-0. With the Pirates, Daniels was 8-16 over four seasons, appearing in 10 games for the club in their 1960 World Championship season.
He was traded by the Pirates to the expansion Senators on December 16, 1960 with Harry Bright (#584) and R C Stevens for pitcher Bobby Shantz. The Senators lost 100 games in their first year, but Daniels led the pitching staff with 12 wins. He was a mainstay in the Senators' pitching rotation during their first five seasons, appearing in 177 games and going 37-60 with a 4.14 ERA. For his career, Daniels appeared in 230 games and owned a 45-76 record to go with a 4.44 ERA. Daniels was pretty good with the bat too. In the era before an American League designated hitter, he hit .170 with 5 home runs and 26 RBIs.
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| A socially distant 4th |
July 8, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #110
In need of some cardboard therapy as we approached the four month anniversary of the start of our social distancing, I went on a mini eBay binge the first week of July. We had a vacation planned for the last week of June, first week of July, and that vacation had been unceremoniously cancelled at some point in April. Major League Baseball was showing signs of coming back, the Black Lives Matter movement was finally gaining momentum, the pandemic showed no signs of going away any time soon and a complete lack of intelligent national leadership wasn't helping anything or anybody. I needed some old baseball cards.
17 cards arrived on July 8th, including this Daniels card won from Greg Morris Cards with a winning bid of $2.25. I bid on 15 cards from Greg Morris Cards' eBay auctions, winning 7 of them. A batch of 10 more cards entered my eBay cart from Dean's Cards on the same day. Over the next several weeks, I'll review each of the 17 cards acquired, putting us just over the 20% mark for completion of our 1965 Topps set.
This card caught my eye as I was unfamiliar with Daniels, and I could appreciate that his first and last name approximated the first and middle names of our youngest son Ben.
The Card / Senators Team Set
This is the eighth and final appearance in a Topps flagship set for Daniels. Flipping to the back, his 1956 no-hitter would have come as a member of the Lincoln Chiefs in the Class-A Western League. His 17-8 performance with the Hollywood Stars in 1957 earned him his September promotion. And his two shutouts in 1964 came during the final month of the season - both against the White Sox on September 7th and September 19th.
1965 Season
This was to be Daniels' final season in the majors, and he appeared in 33 games (18 starts) for Gil Hodges' (#99) club while going 5-13 with a 4.72 ERA. Amazingly enough, the Senators lost each of the final 18 games in which Daniels appeared. His final solid pitching performance came on June 12th when he threw a complete game victory against the White Sox, allowing a run on five hits.
Daniels was dropped from the big league roster in 1966 and pitched the entire season with the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders before retiring from baseball.
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First Mainstream Card: 1958 Topps #392
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8): 1958-1965
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2014 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-BD
This 1965 Topps card was reprinted for Daniels to sign as an insert card found in packs of 2014 Topps Heritage.
35 - Daniels non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/11/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Prior Card: #128 Vic Davalillo - Cleveland Indians
Next Card: #130 Al Kaline - Detroit Tigers
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