Daniel Lewis Gardella
Born: Feb. 26, 1920 in New York, NY
Died: March 6, 2005 in Yonkers, NY
Debut: 1955 | Pos: OF
H: 5’7.5″ | W: 160 | B: L | T: L
| Yrs | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BA |
| 3 | 169 | 543 | 74 | 145 | 24 | 85 | 2 | .267 |
>> Visit the Danny Gardella biography on Baseball Almanac for complete statistics.
Danny Gardella, an outfielder who challenged baseball’s reserve clause, died on March 6, 2005. He was 85.
He played 169 games in the major leagues, hitting .267 with 24 home runs and 85 RBI. His most productive season was 1945 when he played in 121 games for the Giants. That season, he hit .272 with 18 home runs and 71 RBI.
That season, his brother, Al, was also a member of the Giants team.
In 1946, Gardella signed with the Mexican League and baseball commissioner Happy Chandler suspended him, and others, for violating baseball’s reserve clause. Gardella had been offered $4,500 to play for the Giants in 1946 and $10,000 to play in Mexico.
He later sued Major League Baseball and would later receive a settlement from the league. He returned to the major leagues for one at-bat in one game with the Cardinals in 1950.
According to his obituary, Gardella was a father of 10 and a grandfather of 27.