Dennis Leonard
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Dennis Patrick Leonard (Born May 8th, 1951 in Brooklyn, NY)
One of the Kansas City Royals' most dominating pitchers of the late 70's and early 80's, but a promising career cut short due to injuries. In 1975, his first full year he managed to bust out with a 15-7 record. He would keep adding on to that with three 20 win seasons, but more impressive was the amount of games he started and finished. Despite his success in the regular season his post season record is less than impressive. He started 9 postseason games for the Royals between 1976 and 1981, but ended with a record of only 3-5, including a 1-1 record in the 1980 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Towards the end of his career he missed most of the remaining seasons due to knee injuries. His final season was in 1986 where he ended up with a 8-13 record despite a strong showing. Besides his rookie season of 1974 this was the only time he had a losing record. At the end of the 1986 season he retired from the MLB.
Trivia
- Played his college ball at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
- Graduate of Oceanside Senior High School in Oceanside NY (Class of 1966).