John Philip Rheinecker (May 29, 1979 – July 18, 2017) was an American

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 leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

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 ...

. He played 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) for the Texas Rangers.

High school years

Rheinecker attended Gibault Catholic High School in

Waterloo, Illinois Waterloo is a city in and county seat of Monroe County, Illinois. The population was 9,811 at the 2010 census. Geography Waterloo is located at (38.335243, -90.152685). According to the 2010 census, Waterloo has a total area of , of which (or ...

, and was a letterman in

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 t ...

. He grew up in

Hecker, Illinois Hecker is a village in Monroe County in the U.S state of Illinois. The population was 481 at the 2010 census. History Hecker was originally named Freedom. The town was laid out on land of Theodore Hilgard. It was platted and surveyed by Thomas ...

and first starred at the Hecker Dome. In baseball, as a senior, he batted .438 and as a pitcher, posted a 7-11 record and a 2.49

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 ...

College and professional career

Prior to playing professional baseball, Rheinecker attended Belleville Area Community College and Southwest Missouri State. He was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 2001. After signing with the A's, Rheinecker spent the next four seasons in the organization's farm system. On March 31, 2006, Oakland traded him (along with infielder Freddie Bynum) to the Texas Rangers for pitcher Juan Dominguez. A southpaw starting pitcher, Rheinecker made his major league debut April 22, 2006, in a game 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 ve ...

. On his 27th birthday (May 29, 2006, which was also

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

), Rheinecker made his second start for the Rangers, pitching 8

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

innings and earning his first major league win. For most of the 2006 season, he was shuttled back and forth between the Rangers and their Triple-A affiliate, the

Oklahoma RedHawks Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

. Rheinecker was hit by a pitch from

Noah Lowry Noah Ryan Lowry (born October 10, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2007. College and the MLB Draft Lowry was first drafted out of Nordhof ...

in his only Major League plate appearance on June 28, 2006. , he is one of only six players in history to be hit by a pitch in his only Major League turn at bat. During the April 27–30, 2007, four game series at

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 anch ...

, Rheinecker forgot his passport, and thus could not play in the games. Rheinecker was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) and underwent surgery to remove a rib to alleviate the symptoms. Arthroscopic shoulder surgery was performed on May 24, 2008, to clean up the shoulder joint. This caused him to miss the entire 2008 season other than two minor league rehab starts. He became a free agent at the end of the season.

Death

On July 18, 2017, Rheinecker died after hanging himself in a garage. According to family members, Rheinecker had been dealing with depression. His wife Jamie told investigators that he performed heavy alcohol use, and it was determined that he was under the influence of alcohol when he hanged himself. He was survived by his wife Jamie, two children, and two stepchildren.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rheinecker, John 1979 births 2017 deaths 2017 suicides American expatriate baseball players in Canada American people of German descent Arizona League Rangers players Baseball players from Illinois Major League Baseball pitchers Midland RockHounds players Missouri State Bears baseball players Modesto A's players Oklahoma RedHawks players People from Monroe County, Illinois Sacramento River Cats players Southwestern Illinois Blue Storm baseball players Sportspeople from Belleville, Illinois Suicides by hanging in Missouri Texas Rangers players Vancouver Canadians players Visalia Oaks players