Craig Anderson (born 30 October 1980) is an Australian former professional

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who has played for the

Sydney Blue Sox The Sydney Blue Sox are a professional baseball team, and one of eight foundation teams in the re-formed Australian Baseball League (ABL). The team plays their home games at Blacktown International Sportspark (BISP), one of the two venues use ...

in the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

as well as the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

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), ...

Early career

Anderson first signed with the

in 1999. Anderson featured in the 2000

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League ...

. He played in the Mariners system through 2004, posting 11 wins and a 3.56

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

with the Triple-A

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960. ...

that year. He played for Australia in the

2006 World Baseball Classic The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums that are in and around Tokyo, Japan; San Juan, Puerto ...

, after which he joined the

. He began 2008 pitching middle relief for the

Norfolk Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesapea ...

of the Triple-A International League. It was his second season in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and his fifth in Triple-A. He became a free agent at the end of the season. He played for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the 2009 WBC, starting the team's first game of the tournament against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Sydney Blue Sox

Anderson played the first nine seasons in the

, announcing his retirement at the conclusion of the 2018-19 Australian Baseball League season and currently holds the record for most games started as a pitcher (88), innings pitched (556.2), losses (32) and tied first for most wins (35) with Daniel Schmidt. He finished his career 35–32 with a 3.61 ERA in 99 games. Craig was awarded the pitcher of the year during the 2012–13 ABL season.

References

External links

2006 World Baseball Classic – Team Australia statistics
1980 births Living people Australian expatriate baseball players in Canada Australian expatriate baseball players in the United States Baseball pitchers Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Bowie Baysox players Brockton Rox players Everett AquaSox players Frederick Keys players Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Norfolk Tides players Olympic baseball players for Australia Olympic medalists in baseball Ottawa Lynx players Sportspeople from Gosford San Antonio Missions players San Bernardino Stampede players Sportsmen from New South Wales Tacoma Rainiers players Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players 2006 World Baseball Classic players 2009 World Baseball Classic players Olympic silver medalists for Australia Águilas Cibaeñas players DOOR Neptunus players Australian expatriate baseball players in the Netherlands Australian expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Southern Maryland Blue Crabs players Sydney Blue Sox players {{Australia-baseball-bio-stub