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 enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

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), ...

. He batted and threw right-handed.

College career

Dingman attended

Hutchinson Community College Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC or HCC) is a public community college in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States. 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 state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Professional career

He was drafted by the

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

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 for Jorge DePaula. From -, Dingman played in the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

, Yankees, and Cubs organizations, and in

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 ...

. Dingman signed with the Detroit Tigers organization as a minor league free agent before the start of the season. He earned a place in their bullpen 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 and in the off season lived there with wife Teresa and their 5 children.

Career after baseball

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