Eugene Macalalag "Geno" Espineli (born September 8, 1982) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

Early life

Espineli was born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to Filipino parents born in the Philippines who migrated to the United States. He also has two older sisters who were also born in Houston, Lorene and Theresa. Lorene is a mathematics teacher at the Bentley School in Lafayette, California.

Career

Espineli played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the Texas Longhorns and TCU Horned Frogs. With TCU, he was named to the All-Conference USA Tournament Team in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. In 2002 and 2003, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the Cotuit Kettleers of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 14th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft. A full-time reliever in his first two professional seasons, Espineli

started "Started" is a song recorded by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea for her second studio album ''In My Defense''. The song was written by Azalea alongside Ronny Wright and produced by American record producer J. White Did It. It was released by Ba ...

some games for Double-A

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

in and became a full-time starter for Connecticut in . Espineli, a reliever again in , started the season with the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. He was named a

PCL PCL may refer to: Aviation *FAP Captain David Abenzur Rengifo International Airport, near Pucallpa, Peru (IATA code: PCL) *Pilot-controlled lighting, a system by which aircraft pilots can control the lighting of runways and taxiways via radio cont ...

All-star and also to the

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before being called up to the majors on July 20. He made his debut that same day, pitching one scoreless inning. When Espineli made his debut with San Francisco on July 23, , with 0.2 innings of perfect relief against the visiting

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

, many believe he became the first full-blooded Filipino to ever play in the major leagues. Espineli signed a minor league contract with an invitation to 2011 spring training with 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 (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

. On May 13, 2011, Espinelli signed a minor league contract with the

.Tsn.ca Transactions
/ref> He finished the season with the Fresno Grizzlies and retired after the season. Eugene is currently the first and only full-blooded Filipino playing for the Dirtbags in the world renowned Denver NABA league. (25WAA)

References

External links

San Francisco Chronicle article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espineli, Geno 1982 births American baseball players of Filipino descent Baseball players from Houston Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Connecticut Defenders players Cotuit Kettleers players Fresno Grizzlies players Living people Major League Baseball pitchers Sportspeople from Katy, Texas Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players San Francisco Giants players San Jose Giants players TCU Horned Frogs baseball players Texas Longhorns baseball players Gigantes de Carolina players Venados de Mazatlán players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico