Timothy James Leary (born December 23, 1958) is an American former professional baseball right-handedpitcher.

Tim Leary
Pitcher
Born: (1958-12-23)December 23, 1958 (age 66) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 12, 1981, for the New York Mets
Last MLB appearance
August 9, 1994, for the Texas Rangers
MLB statistics
Win–loss record	78–105
Earned run average	4.36
Strikeouts	888
Stats atBaseball Reference
Teams
New York Mets (1981,1983–1984) Milwaukee Brewers (1985–1986) Los Angeles Dodgers (1987–1989) Cincinnati Reds (1989) New York Yankees (1990–1992) Seattle Mariners (1992–1993) Texas Rangers (1994)
Career highlights and awards
World Series champion (1988) Silver Slugger Award (1988)
Medals Men'sbaseball Representing United States Amateur World Series 1978 Italy Team

Leary posted a 10–2 record in his senior year atSanta Monica High School, and was named to the1976 All-California Interscholastic Federation first-team. He went 19–1 to lead hisAmerican Legion Baseball team to the national championship.^[1] Much more in stature than his teammate and fellow former major leaguer, Rod Allen, he received the opportunity to play college baseball at UCLA.

Leary attended theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was a three-year letterwinner for theUCLA Bruins baseball team while completing aneconomics degree. Over his college career, Leary compiled a 21–15 record with a 3.09earned run average. His sixteencomplete games is a school record, and his 258strikeouts are the school's fourth highest total.^[2]

In1978, Leary helped lead theUnited States national baseball team to the silver medal in theWorld Cup played in Italy. He was also a member of the national team for the1979 Pan American Games.^[3]

Leary was selected by theNew York Mets as the second overall pick of the1979 Major League Baseball draft. He went 15–8 with a 2.76 ERA and 138 strikeouts for theJackson Mets in his first professional season, prompting the Mets to make the controversial decision to bring him all the way to the majors for his second season. Making his major league debut on April 12,1981, Leary faced just seven batters,^[4] before leaving the game after just two innings with a strained elbow.^[5] After four months inactive, he appeared in six games with the Mets' triple A affiliate, theTidewater Tides toward the end of the 1981 season. He strained his elbow a second time duringSpring training1982,^[6] and was shut down for the entire 1982 season.

He returned to Tidewater in1983, and fell to 8–16 with a 4.38 ERA, mostly due to an increase in home runs allowed (11 versus just 5 in1980). Regardless, he received a second call up to the majors that September, and never made it out of the second inning in his return, mostly due to twoerrors byGeorge Foster inleft field that led to fiveunearned runs.^[7] His second start, however, went far better, as he pitched a complete game for his first major league victory against theMontreal Expos.^[8]

Leary split the1984 season between Tidewater and the Mets

During the 1984–85 offseason, Leary was part of a four team trade in which the Mets sent him to theMilwaukee Brewers and receivedFrank Wills from theKansas City Royals.

Leary spent the1985 season with Milwaukee's triple A affiliate, theVancouver Canadians, and once again returned to the majors when rosters expanded that September. He finally enjoyed his first healthy major league season in1986 when he went 12–12 with a 4.21 ERA and 188.1innings pitched. Following the season, he andTim Crews were traded to theLos Angeles Dodgers forGreg Brock.

Leary went 3–11 with a 4.76 ERA splitting his time betweenstarts and as areliever in1987. After the season, Leary pitched in the Mexican Leagues so he could learn how to throw a split-finger pitch. He had to drive fromSanta Monica toTijuana nearly on a daily basis to play.^[9] This led to a breakthrough season for the Dodgers in1988. He held thePhiladelphia Phillies to just onehit on May 25,^[10] and was named theNational League's "Pitcher of the Week" for the week of July 18–24, during which he shut out theSt. Louis Cardinals^[11] and earned a complete game victory over thePittsburgh Pirates.^[12] He finished the season second on his team behindCy Young Award winnerOrel Hershiser in wins (17), ERA (2.91), shutouts (6), complete games (9) and innings pitched (228.2), while leading his club with 180 strikeouts.

The Dodgers won theNational League West by seven games over theCincinnati Reds to face Leary's former franchise, the New York Mets, in the1988 National League Championship Series. Leary appeared in the game four twelve inning marathon won by the Dodgers,^[13] and made the start in game six, taking the loss.^[14]

In theWorld Series against theOakland Athletics, Leary was used out of thebullpen by managerTommy Lasorda. His three innings of scoreless work allowed the Dodgers to come back from a 4–2 deficit in game one,^[15] and he appeared in game three, allowing onerun in 3.2 innings.^[16]

Following the Dodgers' World Series victory, Leary was named theSporting News' National LeagueComeback Player of the Year for his regular season performance.

He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds midway through the1989 season withMariano Duncan forKal Daniels andLenny Harris. After the season, the Reds sent him andVan Snider to theNew York Yankees forHal Morris and minor leaguer Rodney Imes.

Leary experienced some hard luck in his first season with the Yankees. Despite a respectable 4.11 ERA, he led theAmerican League with nineteen losses, mostly due to poor run support from the Yankees' bats and a league leading 23wild pitches. Either way, the Yankees re-signed Leary for three years and $5.95 million when he became afree agent at the end of the season.^[17] After winning his first two starts of the1991 season, Leary went 2–8 with a 6.95 ERA to earn a demotion to the bullpen. He ended the season at 4–10 with a 6.49 ERA.

He was moved back into the starting rotation in1992, and was 5–6 with a 5.57 ERA when he was dealt to theSeattle Mariners for minor leaguer Sean Twitty.

Seattle acquired Leary to fill a starting rotation that had been decimated by injury.^[18] As a result, Leary made six starts that September.

In1993, the Mariners improved from a team that narrowly avoided one hundred losses to 82–80, mostly due to new managerLou Piniella, and the emergence of young starsRandy Johnson,Ken Griffey Jr. andJay Buhner. For his part, Leary had his first winning season since 1988 at 11–9.

Leary signed a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring training with the Montreal Expos in1994. He was 2–4 with a 5.43 ERA for the triple AOttawa Lynx when they released him. He caught on with theTexas Rangers shortly afterwards, and went 1–1 with an 8.14 ERA. He retired when the Rangers attempted to reassign him to the minor leagues following the season.^[19]

In 2011, Leary served as the pitching coach atCal State Northridge.

As of 2015, Leary is an Alumni member of theLos Angeles Dodgers Community Relations team.

Leary was named the NLSilver Slugger pitcher in 1988, when he batted .269 with nineruns batted in and thirteen successfulsacrifice bunts. His only career home run came offHall of FamerSteve Carlton.^[20]

Leary was inducted into theUCLA Bruins Athletics Hall of Fame while he was a member of the New York Yankees. Shortly after his retirement, he became a coach forUCLA from1997 to2000 and again in2004. He has also coached atLoyola Marymount University^[21] Now he is the pitching coach forBrentwood School (Los Angeles).

• Career statistics fromMLB · ESPN · Baseball Reference · Fangraphs · Baseball Reference (Minors) · Retrosheet, orUltimate Mets Database