T.J. House

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Glenn Anthony House

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Biographical Information[edit]

T.J. House was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 16th round (501st overall) of the 2008 Amateur Draft. It was assumed House would attend Tulane University, which is why he dropped in the draft. But he signed with scout Chuck Bartlett for a $750,000 bonus.

In the course of his first two seasons in the Indians farm system, in 2009 and 2010, House posted a 12-21 record in 53 games. In 52 of those 53 games, he was the starting pitcher. In 270 innings pitched, House had an earned run average of 3.53, and amassed 215 strikeouts. He had another losing season in 2011, going 6-12, 5.19 in repeating with the Kinston Indians of the Carolina League. However, he found significant improvement in in 2012, when he went 2-0, 1.44 in 4 starts for the Carolina Mudcats to earn a promotion to AA on May 1st. With the Akron Aeros, he went 8-5, 3.98 in 23 starts. In 2013, he started the season back with Akron and once again earned a promotion after 4 starts, this time to AAA and the Columbus Clippers. Between the two, he was a combined 9-11, 4.17 in 28 starts, pitching 164 innings.

T.J. started the 2014 season back at Columbus and was 1-2, 2.40 after 7 starts when he got the call to Cleveland. Even though 138 of his 140 minor league appearances thus far had been as a starter, the Indians put him in the bullpen for the time being, and he made his first big league appearance on May 17th, pitching a perfect inning of relief in a loss to the Oakland Athletics. His next appearance was a start, though, on May 23rd against the Baltimore Orioles, and he was charged with an 8-4 loss after giving up 5 runs on 11 hits in 6 innings. He was credited with his first big league win on July 5th when he defeated the Kansas City Royals, 7-3.

He was one of the main culprits in the Indians' poor start to the 2015 season, as he went 0-4, 13.15 in four April starts. He was sent down to the minors at the end of the month and did not pitch in the majors again that season. It turned out that he was injured, as he only took the mound for 5 minor league starts, going 0-2, 4.88. In 2016, he pitched only 4 times for the Indians, all in relief with a 3.38 ERA. He spent most of the year at Columbus, where he was 5-3, 3.98 in 33 games, including 12 starts. In 72 1/3 innings, he struck out 50 batters but walked 43.

In 2017 he went to spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays. On March 10th, he was hit in the back of the head by a line drive off the bat of Detroit Tigers batter John Hicks. The incident took place in the 9th inning of a Grapefruit League game; House laid motionless on the ground for 10 minutes before being evacuated to a hospital on a stretcher. The game was ended prematurely as a result. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons stated afterwards that House was conscious the whole time, although he was bleeding profusely, and initial tests did not detect any significant injuries. He only made two appearances for the Blue Jays later that season before being designated for assignment. He was signed by the Chicago White Sox the following January, but only pitched for their AAA affiliate, the Charlotte Knights, before being released in June. He played in the independent American Association in 2019, with the Milwaukee Milkmen and Kansas City T-Bones, and was in the Constellation Energy League based in Houston, TX when it was the only professional minor league in action during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In December of 2022, House came out as gay when he published a statement on his Facebook account engagement his marriage to partner Ryan Neitzel. He explained that it had been difficult keeping closeted while playing professional sports and that he felt much better now that he could be himself.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Michael Hoad: "Former Blue Jays, Indians pitcher T.J. House comes out as gay", Yahoo! Sports, December 12, 2022. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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