Craig Allen Dingman (born March 12, 1974) is a former

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. He batted and threw right-handed.

College career

Dingman attended

Hutchinson Community College Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC or HCC) is a Public college, public community college in Hutchinson, Kansas. It serves nearly 5,000 credit students every semester. History The college was established in the spring of 1928 as Hutchinson Ju ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Professional career

He was drafted by the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

in the 36th round of the Major League Baseball draft and made his debut on June 30, . On March 30, , he was traded to the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

for Jorge DePaula. From -, Dingman played in the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * ''Reds'' (film), a 1981 American film starring and directed by Warren Beatty * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists duri ...

, Yankees, and Cubs organizations, and in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Dingman signed with the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

organization as a minor league free agent before the start of the season. He earned a place in their

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if ...

that year, then took a large step forward in , finishing with a 2–3 record and a 3.66

Earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. While playing catch with a teammate on February 4, , however, his throwing hand spontaneously became pale and his arm lost all circulation from the elbow down. After being placed on blood-thinning medication, he was diagnosed with a torn artery in his right shoulder, which led to arterial bypass surgery later that month. The operation removed an artery from his right and transplanted it into the injured shoulder, re-routing blood around the damaged vessel. It was the first procedure of its kind in the history of Major League Baseball. He returned to the Detroit Tigers in early 2007 for testing on his throwing arm but suffered a blood clot and fatigue in his shoulder. He was released by the Tigers resulting in his final game being prior to his injury on 28 September 2005.

Private life

Dingman was born in Wichita. In the off season, he lived there with his wife Teresa and their five children.

Career after baseball

Dingman had worked in the construction and roofing industry prior to his baseball career. He returned to the construction industry, and, in 2014, he joined with a partner in Wichita, Kansas, to start a roofing construction company called Dingers Roofing & Construction.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dingman, Craig 1974 births Living people Baseball players from Kansas Major League Baseball pitchers New York Yankees players Colorado Rockies players Toledo Mud Hens players Detroit Tigers players Gulf Coast Yankees players Tampa Yankees players Greensboro Bats players Columbus Clippers players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Louisville Bats players West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx players Iowa Cubs players