Jeffrey Scott Bittiger (born April 13, 1962) 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 (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

, and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

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 pitched four seasons in the major leagues, from until . He was the player-personnel consultant for the independent league

Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are a professional minor-league baseball team based in Fargo, North Dakota, in the United States. The RedHawks are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major Leagu ...

, as of . He also was listed as a professional scout for 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 ...

, based in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Amateur career

Raised in

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,Secaucus High School Secaucus High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Secaucus, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Secaucus Board o ...

. Bittiger attended college at Jersey City State University and

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...

in the off seasons, and was drafted by the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

out of high school in the 7th round of the 1980 draft on June 3.

Professional career

New York Mets system

Bittiger briefly played third base in the minor leagues before being converted into a full-time pitcher in . Thereafter, he languished in the minor leagues until January 16, 1986, when the Mets traded him to the

Phillies

Bittiger broke into

as a starter for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1986. He hit a home run off of

Bob Kipper Robert Wayne Kipper (born July 8, 1964) is an American professional baseball coach and a former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. He has also spent two terms (all of the 2002 season, and part of the 2015 season) as bullpen coach of MLB's Bos ...

of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

on September 22, 1986, in his second at bat as a player for the Phillies, earning his first career win and getting credit for the

game-winning RBI A game-winning RBI (GWRBI) is a statistic that was used in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1980 to 1988. Building upon the run batted in (RBI) statistic, the ''game-winning'' RBI was defined in MLB rules as "the RBI that gives a club the lead it ...

."Bittiger has reason to be excited about future"
''

Pottsville Republican The ''Republican Herald'' is a daily newspaper serving Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by Times-Shamrock Communications. History The ''Republican-Herald'' was founded in 1884 as ''The Daily Republican'' by ...

'', September 23, 1986. Accessed March 12, 2022, via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. "Bittiger, 24, lived a rookie's dream at the expense of the Pirates. He homered, earned his first victory and was credited with the game- winning run batted in.... Bittiger, who struck out in his only previous at-bat, hit a 3-1 pitch over the left field wall against Bob Kipper (5-8)." He started only three games for the Phillies, and had a 5.70

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 ...

in 14 IP. He played for the Phillies until December 8, 1986, when he was released. He was signed by the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

just 12 days later on December 20, 1986, but was released by that organization April 4, 1987. On April 15, he signed with the Minnesota Twins.

Twins

In 1987, Bittiger pitched infrequently for the

, first as a starter, then as a middle man. He pitched one inning in the Twins loss to the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

, giving up two hits and one earned run. The Twins went on to beat the Royals and eventually win the World Series in October 1987. The Twins released him after the season on November 12, 1987, and on January 22, 1988, he was signed by the Chicago White Sox.

White Sox

The next year, 1988, Bittiger played for the Chicago White Sox, pitching in a career high 25 games, and starting seven of those. In his seven starts Bittiger went 2–4, and had no decision the other game. His ERA for 1988 was 4.26 in 61 IP. The next year Bittiger pitched in only two major league games, starting one, which he lost. His ERA for the year was 6.85 in 9 IP. After the season, Bittiger was traded to the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

for

Tracy Woodson Tracy Michael Woodson (born October 5, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and college coach. He played all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1987 to 1989 and 1992 to 1993, primarily as a third base ...

, but he never pitched in the majors again. He continued to pitch in the minor leagues until 1996.

References

External links

Jeff Bittiger
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Jeff Bittiger
at Baseball Almanac
Jeff Bittiger
at Baseballbiography.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bittiger, Jeff 1962 births Living people Baseball players from Jersey City, New Jersey People from Secaucus, New Jersey American expatriate baseball players in Canada Chicago White Sox players Little Falls Mets players Jackson Mets players Lynchburg Mets players Tidewater Tides players Portland Beavers players Vancouver Canadians players Gulf Coast White Sox players Albuquerque Dukes players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Huntsville Stars players Tacoma Tigers players Rochester Aces players Memphis Chicks players Winnipeg Goldeyes players Edmonton Trappers players Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks players Major League Baseball pitchers Minnesota Twins players Oakland Athletics scouts Philadelphia Phillies players