Curtis Barnard Thigpen (born April 19, 1983) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

. He played parts of two seasons in

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), ...

(MLB) with the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

Amateur career

Thigpen spent his college career at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and won the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

in 2002 during which he was named to the All-Tournament Team. In 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 ...

in 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 ...

for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox and was named a league all-star. Thigpen was selected by the Blue Jays in the second round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft with the 57th overall pick.

Minor league career

In 2007, he started the season playing for the

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, the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Major league career

Toronto Blue Jays

Thigpen was called up from the minors on June 5, , and made his major league debut on June 6, 2007, at

Rogers Centre Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a multi-purpose retractable roof stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

against the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venu ...

. He started at first base and finished the game 1-for-4. After the 2007 season, he finished hitting .238 with 11 RBIs, a .294 on-base percentage and a .287 slugging percentage over 47 games. During the 2008 season, Thigpen saw less playing time with

Rod Barajas Rodrigo Richard Barajas (born September 5, 1975) is an American former professional baseball catcher and most recently catching and quality control coach for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). Barajas served as the interim manag ...

coming to Toronto. On September 26, 2008, Thigpen hit his first and only

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

—in what would turn out to be the final at-bat of his major league career. He finished the season hitting .176 with one home run and one RBI. On February 4, , Thigpen was

designated for assignment Designated for assignment (DFA) is a contractual term used in Major League Baseball (MLB). A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the team's 40-man roster, after which the team must within seven days, return the pla ...

to clear a roster spot for newly acquired

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 ...

Brian Burres Brian Burres (born April 8, 1981) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Burres' best pitch is his changeup. He also has a high 80s-low 90 MPH fastball and a curveball. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orio ...

. On February 6, Thigpen was sent outright to the Blue Jays'

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affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s.

Oakland Athletics

On March 27, 2009, Thigpen was traded to the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

in exchange for a

player to be named later In Major League Baseball, a player to be named later (PTBNL) is an unnamed player involved in exchange or "trade" of players between teams. The terms of a trade are not finalized until a later date, most often following the conclusion of the seaso ...

or cash considerations. He was released in April 2010.

Post-playing career

Thigpen and former Longhorns teammate

J. B. Cox J. Brent Cox (born May 13, 1984) is an American former baseball relief pitcher. Career Cox attended the University of Texas. With the Texas Longhorns baseball team, Cox set the record for the most appearances in the College World Series with 13 a ...

returned to the Texas Longhorns as volunteer student assistants in 2010. Thigpen then went on to work as a commercial lender at R Bank Texas from September 5, 2012 until January 15, 2014.

References

External links

Minorleaguebaseball.comBluejays.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thigpen, Curtis 1983 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada Auburn Doubledays players Baseball players from Dallas Lansing Lugnuts players Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball first basemen Syracuse Chiefs players Syracuse SkyChiefs players Texas Longhorns baseball players Toronto Blue Jays players Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox players Waterloo Bucks players