Italian-American Descalso was born in Redwood City, California, on October 19, 1986, to Marylou and George Descalso.

Daniel played for the Cardinals (5 years), Rockies, Diamondbacks and Cubs over a 10 year career, accumulating 107 post-season at-bats in 48 games, and winning the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011.

He was on Team USA's roster for the 2009 Baseball World Cup. He reached the major leagues as a September call-up in 2010, hitting .265 (9 for 34) in 11 games. He then became a full-time Cardinal in 2011, when he played 148 games as a rookie, mostly as a fill-in for the injured David Freese at third base. He hit .264/.334/.353 with 1 homer and 28 RBI, but was back on the bench for the postseason, as Freese was healthy and would in fact earn MVP honors in both the NLCS and World Series.

For his part, Descalso saw action in all three rounds of the postseason, going a combined 3 for 9 with 3 runs scored as the Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers in seven games to become World Champions.

In 2012, Descalso saw most of his action at second base, also playing at 3B and SS, while logging 143 games. His production fell to .227/.303/.324, although he did hit four homers. This time, he was a starter in the postseason, and after being held hitless in the Wild Card Game, was 6 for 19 (.316) with a double and a pair of homers and 78 runs scored as one of the key figures of the Cardinals' upset of the Washington Nationals in 5 games in the NLDS. Like most of his teammates, however, he was shut down by the San Francisco Giants' great pitching in the NLCS, being limited to 5 for 25 with a double.

When the 2013 season began, young Matt Carpenter, a much more dangerous hitter, got the opportunity to start some games at 2B and went on an early tear, moving Daniel to the bench. After that, for the remainder of his career, Daniel would remain a valuable utility player.

He played for Team Italy in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen, and Wikipedia)