Only 84, if you had said the name and asked me to guess, I probably would have guessed he died a long time ago. His best seasons were well before my time. A long career, pitching to age 39, but he just missed registering on my radar screen. Gaylord Perry was only 3 years younger, but pitched longer into old baseball age and so I remember watching him. McDaniel is a player from my father's era.

Presumably named after Charles Lindbergh.

He never pitched in the postseason, seeming to pitch well for teams that were between playoff runs. He pitched for the Cardinals from 1955 to 1962, and they won the World Series in 1964. He was a Giant for three years in the middle of their eight-year run of winning records but no postseason appearances. Then he was a Yankee from 1968 to 1973, in the middle of their 11-year drought. He ended his career with the Royals in 1975, one year before they started winning the division almost every year.

He was also a Cub, right in the middle of their 39-year playoff and 108-year World Series championship droughts.

He never pitched in the postseason, seeming to pitch well for teams that were between playoff runs.

The Pirates tried to acquire him in '74 for their pennant run, but couldn't swing a deal for him from the Royals.

Presumably named after Charles Lindbergh.

you're close

"Born on December 13, 1935, Lyndall Dale McDaniel earned the nickname Lindy at 4 years old in a nod to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh."

parents were Newell and Ada Mae, so Lyndall probably seemed like a normal moniker to those Oklahomans.

btw Lindy once picked up a win and a loss in a doubleheader and was the first reliever to get a Cy Young Award vote.

"When McDaniel retired, he trailed only Hoyt Wilhelm in career appearances, relief victories, and relief appearances."

"McDaniel made only 22 errors in his career, and set the NL record (since broken) for most consecutive games by a pitcher without an error, 225."

Higher JAWS score than Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Trevor Hoffman, and Rollie Fingers.

I first became aware of him via baseball cards when he was a veteran reliever with the Yankees, and he looked about 50 years old in those early-to-mid-1970s cards.
He also seemed ancient because, as I became obsessed with baseball statistics, I found he was a star closer as far back as the late 1950s, which seemed like a completely different era.

For some reason when I was a kid in the '70s, 1959 was a million years ago, whereas nowadays 2007 doesn't seem so different from 2020. I think a big part of it was people really did look and dress quite a bit differently between 1959 and 1973 (including baseball players), music was radically different, TV shows were in B&W vs. color. I can't think of any similar contrast between 2020 and 2007.

McDaniel’s 1964 Topps was one of my first “old baseball cards” I got as a kid growing up in the 1980s. I also had Larry Jackson’s card & with them both being Cubs I always associated McDaniel & Jackson together. McDaniel’s career spanned 1955-75, America changed a ton in that time as did baseball. McDaniel’s final team, the KC Royals, weren’t even a team until nearly a decade and a half into his career.

salvo, we must be around the same age.

by the early 1970s, the old players with crewcuts looked like dinosaurs to this long-haired tween.

Then he was a Yankee from 1968 to 1973, in the middle of their 11-year drought.

McDaniel was one of the few bright spots during that drought. A bit uneven, but a 2.89 ERA during his Yankee tenure, with a workload considerably above what is the norm for relievers today. Lindy even started 3 games in his final season with the Yankees (12-6, 2.86, ERA 160.1 IP at age-37), with one complete game!

I'm a bit older than most of you, and remember Lindy from his Cardinals days in the 1950s. One odd thing was that he was swing man. He may have been the best pitcher in the NL in 1960, but the Cards - and the teams he played for later - had trouble deciding whether to use him as a closer or as a starter. He pitched when the Cards had Hoyt Wilhelm for a year. The other thing I can remember was the he did not have even one WOW pitch. If you watched him pitch, you never saw anything that would make you say, "WOW!" But he got the job done.

well, per the SABR bio:

"his potential [as a rookie in 1955] was glimpsed by the league’s senior umpire of 40 years, Babe Pinelli, who offered that “[McDaniel] showed me one of the best curves I’ve ever seen.”

also

"After the [1965] season the Cubs looked to fill numerous needs, one of which was at catcher. The Cubs had long coveted San Francisco catching prospect Randy Hundley. Notwithstanding new manager Leo Durocher’s comment in November that the Cubs could not “afford to part with him,” McDaniel became part of the price paid to acquire Hundley. Perhaps no two players were happier than two Giants, future Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.

When Mays first encountered Jim Bunning in the 1957 All-Star Game, he reached for McDaniel as an apt comparison of how tough he was to hit against by stating, that Lindy “made us hit the ball on the ground.” Six years later McCovey echoed his teammate, saying, “I’d prefer to face a number of [left-handers] rather than … Lindy McDaniel.”

It’s been a bad year for ex-cardinals.

btw Lindy once picked up a win and a loss in a doubleheader and was the first reliever to get a Cy Young Award vote.

Lindy lost the 1st game of the doubleheader and won the 2nd. Cubs' Elmer Singleton won game 1 and lost game 2. Each team scored 17 runs (10-9 and 8-7) so kind of a draw.

I recall a game on August 4, 1973 in which Lindy replaced an injured Fritz Peterson and pitched the final thirteen innings of a fourteen inning 3-2 Yankee win over the Tigers. Lindy featured an impressive forkball that dove down dramatically, causing strikeouts and groundballs.

I recall a game on August 4, 1973 in which Lindy replaced an injured Fritz Peterson and pitched the final thirteen innings of a fourteen inning 3-2 Yankee win over the Tigers

Stathead says that's the most innings anyone has pitched in relief since 1932. Nobody- starter or reliever- has pitched more than 13 innings in a game since 1980, when four different Billyball A's had 14-inning starts.

Curious so I looked it up. The last pitcher to throw 10 innings in a game was Cliff Lee in 2012. Others may have started a 10th inning, but I was looking for 10 complete.

Last pitcher to go more than 10 innings was 30 years ago, Dave Stewart threw 11 innings of a complete game, 1-0 shutout over the Mariners.

So the famous jack morris game is even more meaningful in that context. Ten innings in a game 7

Curious so I looked it up. The last pitcher to throw 10 innings in a game was Cliff Lee in 2012. Others may have started a 10th inning, but I was looking for 10 complete

I think that was the game where Matt Cain went nine innings in that same game, and both guys finished 9 innings with fewer than 100 pitches.

I think it's possible we may see a starter go 10 innings again. There's no way that we see two starters combine for 19 innings on fewer than 200 combined pitches.