Dan Daley has been named the CUNYAC/Hospital for Special Surgery Scholar Athlete of the Month for April 2017. The senior from West Islip, NY will graduate with a 3.7 GPA while majoring in Finance with a Minor in Economics. Daley had a spectacular month of April where he had a slash line of .362/.412./.532 in 13 games. The third baseman contributed 17 hits and drove in 11 runs. The West Islip native also contributed three doubles, a triple, and a home run during the month and showed his speed by swiping four steals. On campus, Daley is the SAAC representative for the baseball team and was a member of the Financial Leadership Program at Baruch, a highly selective training program for juniors who wish to pursue front-office careers on Wall Street.
The finance major felt that becoming a Bearcat was the right fit for him upon his graduation from West Islip High School, “I chose Baruch because I wanted to pursue my degree at a top-notch business school in addition to being able to play collegiate baseball. Baruch provided the entire package for me, and at an unbeatable cost of tuition for a four-year college,” said Daley.
On a day-to-day basis, Daley may be checking MLB scores from the night before, but he also is checking the news a few blocks away at the NYSE, “Finance courses at Baruch heavily weigh their grading on exams. Therefore, a lot of time is spent going over practice problems provided either by a professor or a textbook. Although grades in this major cannot be taken for granted, it is important for finance majors to be engaged in other related activities, such as keeping up with news in the markets and pursuing internships in financial services.” Daley has always had to balance his love for baseball with his success in the classroom, “For me, the key to balancing academics and baseball was always to load up my schedule in the offseason with more challenging courses to get them out of the way. I never took the additional free time for granted, because I knew that some courses would be more difficult to succeed in during baseball season.”
“I think school and baseball are similar,” continued Daley, “what you get out of it depends on how much work you put into it. If there’s something you don’t understand in class, you need to take the extra time to either study or ask the professor to get together for some extra help. In baseball, if you’re struggling at the plate or making errors every play, you take extra reps in practice working on your mechanics and your mental approach. Success in sports and academics is all about making adjustments.” Speaking of adjustments, Daley is able to help out the Bearcats wherever he can on the field, “For my whole life, my primary position has been third base, but I have branched out to other positions since coming to Baruch. During my four years here I have also pitched, played all 3 outfield positions, and even played an inning at shortstop.”
All of Daley’s hard work has truly paid off. “After graduation, I will begin a full-time job as a Credit Analyst at S&P Global Ratings, one of the “big 3” bond rating agencies. I will be entering a 3-year rotational program that covers various industries. In addition to working, I will be studying for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam,” said Daley.
Despite his career coming to an end with the Bearcats, Daley will look back fondly on his time with the program. “Playing college baseball has taught me not to take anything for granted. My four years here went by so fast and by my senior year I just wanted to leave everything out on the field. I am thankful for all the opportunities that Baruch has offered me during my time here, and I made sure to take advantage of them whenever I could.” He continued by saying, “One of my favorite memories of playing here was beating the College of Staten Island in the 2015 CUNYAC tournament semifinals to clinch the Commissioner’s Cup for Baruch Athletics. I got a big 2-run double in the game to give us the early lead in front of a pretty big crowd of other Baruch athletes.”
When asked what it meant to Daley to be named April’s Scholar Athlete of the Month, he had the following to say, “When I think about how many athletes participate on sports teams throughout this conference, it’s an honor to be named among the top-performing athletes in the classroom. It feels even better knowing that I received this honor during the busiest month of baseball season which is one of the most difficult times for me to keep up with school.”