Win–loss record 18–32 Role Baseball player School St. John's University Name C. Nitkowski Spouse Megan Nitkowski | Strikeouts 347 Weight 95 kg Earned run average 5.37 Height 1.91 m | |
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Christopher John "C. J." Nitkowski (born March 9, 1973) is a left-handed former professional baseball pitcher and current baseball broadcaster. A first-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Reds in 1994, he debuted for the Reds in 1995 and played in the major leagues for the Reds, Mets, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, and Washington Nationals. He has also played in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and in the KBO League for the SK Wyverns, Doosan Bears, and Nexen Heroes. Nitkowski currently hosts on SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio.
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Amateur career
Nitkowski grew up in Suffern, New York and attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, graduating in 1991. Not drafted out of high school, he attended Florida Atlantic University for one year before transferring to St. John's University.
Professional career
The Cincinnati Reds made him the ninth overall pick in the 1994 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major-league debut on June 3, 1995, with the Reds. The Reds traded Nitkowski and a player to be named later (later selected to be Mark Lewis) and minor-leaguer Dave Tuttle to the Detroit Tigers for David Wells on July 31, 1995. After the 1996 season, the Tigers traded Nitkowski with Brad Ausmus, José Lima, Trever Miller and Daryle Ward to the Houston Astros for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller and cash. After the 1998 season, the Astros traded Nitkowski with Ausmus back to the Tigers for Paul Bako, Dean Crow, Brian Powell and minor-leaguers Carlos Villalobos and Mark Persails. Late in the 2001 season, the Tigers traded Nitkowski to the New York Mets for a player to be named later, later identified as minor-leaguer Kyle Kessel.
Nitkowski signed with the Texas Rangers and played for the team in 2002 and 2003. He split the 2004 season between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees. He pitched for the Washington Nationals in 2005.
In the 2006 season, he played exclusively in Triple-A with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. After the year, Nitkowski accepted a one-year contract tender with Nippon Professional Baseball's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He played two seasons for the Hawks, but did not return to the team in 2009. Nitkowski began the 2009 season with the SK Wyverns in South Korea, but was granted his release by the team on June 20. On June 28, 2009, the Doosan Bears in South Korea claimed him off waivers. He was released at the end of the season due to concerns over a shoulder injury he suffered in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.
In July 2010, Nitkowski signed with the Nexen Heroes based in Seoul, South Korea. He signed a minor-league deal on July 13, 2012, with the New York Mets. He began using a sidearm delivery.
Media career
After retiring from baseball in April 2013, Nitkowski began a career in media as a writer, studio host, radio host, color analyst and play-by-play man. As a writer he has had articles published for Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press, SB Nation, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN.com and MLB.com. From 2013-2016 he wrote exclusively for Fox Sports, including for the now defunct JABO, Fox's baseball microsite that attempted to follow the MMQB model.
Nitkowski currently hosts on MLB Network Radio on The Leadoff Spot with Steve Phillips as well as Loud Outs with Ryan Spilborghs.
Radio
From 2013-2016 he co-hosted Eye on Baseball, a national radio baseball show for CBS Sports Radio. His co-hosts on the show were Damon Bruce (2013), Brandon Tierney (2013) and Adam "The Bull" Gerstenhaber (2014–2016). Nitkowski is also a host and analyst for MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM, working approximately 130 shows per year on satellite radio. In 2013 Nitkowski filled in for Suzyn Waldman and worked alongside John Sterling on New York Yankees radio broadcasts for 880 CBS Radio. In 2013 Nitkowski was also a studio analyst for MLB.com. In 2014 Nitkowski called a handful of New York Mets games on radio alongside Josh Lewin and Howie Rose for WOR 710. Starting in 2017 Nitkowski will have a weekly show with Sportsradio 1310AM & 96.7FM The Ticket's "BaD Radio" hosted by Twitter verified Bob Sturm and sports humorist and noted LGBTQ activist Dan McDowell in Dallas, Tx.
Television
In 2017 Nitkowski was named to the Texas Rangers broadcast booth where he will serve in the both the color analyst and play-by-play roles.
From 2013-2016 Nitkowski was a studio analyst for Fox Sports 1, where he was a regular on their baseball highlight show "MLB Whip Around", which debuted on March 31, 2013. He also made appearances on FS1's other studio shows as well as Fox's Saturday MLB pre- and postgame coverage. Other analysts he has worked with at FS1 include former MLB players Frank Thomas, Gabe Kapler, Mark Sweeney, Raúl Ibañez, Pete Rose, Alex Rodriquez and Eric Karros. Nitkowski also calls MLB games for FS1 and Fox and has worked with play-by-play men Thom Brennamen, Kenny Albert, Brian Anderson, Len Kasper, Rich Waltz, Justin Kutcher and Tom McCarthy. He started in television on CBS Sports Network, where he served as a color analyst on NCAA baseball games and has made appearances on MLB Network.
Personal life
On January 30, 2009, it was revealed that Nitkowski was interviewed by the FBI as part of the its investigation into the perjury case against Roger Clemens, with whom he worked out sporadically in the off-seasons from 2001–2006, while also being trained by Brian McNamee, Clemens' principal accuser. Nitkowski, in a statement to the Associated Press (an organization he also occasionally contributes to as a writer) said, "I have never seen Roger or Andy take any illegal performance-enhancing drugs. I have never talked to either of them about PEDs, nor do I have any firsthand knowledge of them taking any PEDs."
Nitkowski was one of the first major-leaguers to maintain his own Web site, where he posted ongoing personal diaries about life in the big leagues, as early as 1997. In many ways, his contributions anticipated the phenomenon of blogging, several years before that term became known to the general public.
Raised a Catholic, Nitkowski converted to Evangelical Christianity after an incident in which his son nearly drowned in a swimming pool during spring training in 2002.
In May 2012 he was filmed playing the role of former MLB Dutch Leonard for a scene in the motion picture 42, which chronicles Jackie Robinson's life story. Coincidentally, the footage was shot in Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tenn., the ballpark where Nitkowski first broke into professional baseball as a first-round pick of the Reds in 1994.
In 2016 Nitkowski is serving as a script and technical consultant for Dan Fogelman's "Pitch", a television drama about the first woman to reach the Major Leagues.