Dennis Lee Eckersley (born October 3, 1954), nicknamed "Eck", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Between 1975 and 1998, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. Eckersley had success as a starter, but gained his greatest fame as a closer, becoming the first of two pitchers in MLB history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season in a career.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility. He is also noted as the pitcher who gave up a dramatic walk-off home run (a phrase Eckersley coined) to the injured Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. He works as a studio analyst for Red Sox games on the NESN network.

Eckersley grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, rooting for both the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. Two of his boyhood heroes were the Giants' Willie Mays and Juan Marichal, and he would go on to adopt Marichal's high leg kick pitching delivery. He was a quarterback at Washington High School in Fremont until his senior year, when he gave up football to protect his throwing arm from injury. He won 29 games as a pitcher at Washington, throwing a 90 mph fastball and a screwball.

Eckersley was drafted out of high school by the Cleveland Indians in the third round of the 1972 amateur draft and was disappointed that he was not drafted by the Giants. He made his MLB debut on April 12, 1975. He was the American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year in 1975, compiling a 13–7 record and 2.60 ERA. His unstyled, long hair, moustache, and live fastball made him an instant and identifiable fan favorite. Eckersley pitched reliably over three seasons with the Indians.

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