Major league pitcher, coach

Bruce Dal Canton, 66, a former high school teacher who turned a good showing at a tryout camp into a lengthy career as a major league pitcher and coach, died Tuesday at a Pittsburgh hospital of esophageal cancer.

Dal Canton went 51-49 with a 3.67 earned-run average from 1967 to ’77 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox.

The right-hander was used as both a starter and reliever, and found his best success with a knuckleball -- the darting pitch that also made him the 1974 American League leader in wild pitches, with 16.

Dal Canton spent more than 25 years in the Atlanta system as a pitching coach, and had been at Class A Myrtle Beach, the Braves’ affiliate in the Carolina League, from 1999 until mid-May.

Dal Canton was born June 15, 1942, and grew up near Pittsburgh. Although he was a star at California University of Pennsylvania, he did not attract a lot of attention from big league scouts and so he went to work as a high school teacher and coach.

In the mid-1960s, Dal Canton went to a Pirates’ tryout camp, hoping for one last chance at a baseball career. The Pirates signed him, and he made his major league debut with them in 1967.