Jeff Cirillo

Template:Infobox MLB retired Jeffrey Howard Cirillo (born September 23, 1969 in Pasadena, California) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. In a 14-season career, Cirillo was a .296 hitter with 112 home runs and 727 RBI in 1617 games. He was named an All-Star in 1997 and 2000. He is the Brewers all-time career leader in batting average at .306. He shares the major league record of playing 99 consecutive errorless games at third base with John Wehner. He batted and threw right-handed.

Professional career

With the Brewers, Cirillo collected a .300 batting average or better for three seasons, including a career-high .326 in 1999. The same year, he added 198 hits (also a career-high) with 15 home runs and 88 RBI. His most productive season came in 2000 with the Rockies, when he posted career-highs in RBI (115), runs (111) and doubles (53); finished with 195 hits, and matched his personal-best .326 average.

Before the 2002 season, Cirillo was traded to the Seattle Mariners in what would become the darkest period of his career. Cirillo was highly ineffective with the bat while in Seattle posting batting averages of only .249 and .205 in the two years he was with the team. He was traded to the San Diego Padres before the 2004 season, but was inactive most of the year with a wrist injury. He made history by becoming Randy Johnson's 4,000th strikeout victim on June 29, 2004.

Rejoining the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005, Cirillo saw a resurgence in his stroke and became productive once again while also providing solid defense.

Cirillo signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins in December 2006. He did not finish the season with the Twins and was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks on August 3, 2007. Cirillo stated that he would most certainly retire at the end of the 2007 season. He made the first pitching appearance of his career on August 20, 2007, against Milwaukee. He pitched one inning and gave up two walks and no runs while striking out one player, former Diamondback Craig Counsell. "He's way nastier than I thought he would be," said Bill Hall, who worked one of the walks. "I was shocked when I got up there. He's got a knuckleball, a slider, he was throwing some changeups. Those pitches make 84, 83 [mph fastballs] look pretty hard. I heard he was a better pitcher in college than he was a hitter."

Before the 2007 National League Division Series, Cirillo held one of baseball's most unwanted records. He had played in 1,617 regular season games, but never in the postseason. When his team made the playoffs, the title was passed to Damion Easley of the Mets who finished the 2007 season having played 1,593 straight games without a playoff berth.

Sportscaster

On April 2, 2008, it was announced that Cirillo would join FSN Wisconsin as an analyst for Milwaukee Brewers broadcasts. His first appearance was on April 18, 2008.

See also

• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

External links

• Template:Aseballstats
• Behind the Dugout: Jeff Cirillo
• publicradio.org Interview with Cirillo
• http://www.kffl.com/player/5341/mlb
• http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070820&content_id=2160549&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil