Chris Oxspring
Chris Andrew Oxspring is a former Australian professional baseball pitcher who played for a number of teams around the world.Career
Oxspring joined the Hanshin Tigers in Nippon Professional Baseball for the 2006 season. On 15 December 2006, Oxspring signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. On 10 July 2007, his contract with the Brewers was sold to the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization just one day before serving as the Pacific Coast League's starting pitcher in the 2007 Triple-A All-Star Game.
Internationally, Oxspring was a star for Australia in the 2004 Olympics, pitching 2–0 with wins both against Japan, earning him a silver medal.
Oxspring had the honor of throwing out the first official pitch of the Australian Baseball League to catcher Andrew Graham when the Blue Sox played the Canberra Cavalry on 6 November 2010. Oxspring threw six shutout innings in a game Sydney won 1–0.
On 8 December 2010, while playing with the Sydney Oxspring signed a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring training with the Detroit Tigers. At the end of the 2010–11 Australian Baseball League regular season, he led the league in innings pitched, game started and strikeouts.
In June 2011, Detroit released Oxspring after struggling for their AAA affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens conceding a 6.53 ERA over 20.2 innings. He shortly after signed with independent team the Somerset Patriots for the remainder of 2011.
In 2013 and 2014, Oxspring played with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization. In 2015, he played with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization. From 2016 to 2018, he had served as a pitching coach for the Lotte Giants. On 3 December 2018 Oxspring announced that he will no longer coach the Giants and return to Australia to reunite with his family.
