Santiago Casilla

Santiago Casilla (born July 25, 1980) is a Dominican professional baseball relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. He stands 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighs 210 pounds (95 kg). He has played for the Giants since 2010 after spending the first six seasons of his MLB career with the Oakland Athletics (2004-2009). Casilla throws four pitches: a fastball, slider curveball and a changeup. He bats and throws right handed.

Professional career

Minor Leagues

Casilla was originally signed by the Oakland A's on January 31, 2000, as an amateur free agent, and pitched from then through 2005 under the name of Jairo Garcia. During spring training in 2006 he revealed his real name to be Santiago Casilla, and that he had used false documents which listed him as three years younger than his actual age when he first signed in 2000.

Oakland Athletics (2004–2009)

Casilla pitched small parts of 2004, 2005, and 2006 for the Athletics as a reliever. In 2007, Casilla was recalled by the Athletics from Triple-A after going 2–1 with a 4.13 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 24 innings. He stepped into a bullpen that had Huston Street, Justin Duchscherer, and Kiko Calero on the disabled list. Casilla started off well, going 2–1 with 2 saves and a 0.45 ERA in his first 16 games. But he wound up finishing the season with a 3–1 record and a 4.44 ERA in 46 games. He pitched in the A's bullpen in the 2008 and 2009 seasons with mixed success.

Santiago

Santiago (/ˌsæntiˈɑːɡoʊ/; Spanish pronunciation: [sanˈtjaɣo]), also known as Santiago de Chile [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ˈtʃile], is the capital and largest city of Chile. It is also the center of its largest conurbation. Santiago is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m (1,706 ft) above mean sea level.

Founded in 1541, Santiago has been the capital city of Chile since colonial times. The city has a downtown core of 19th century neoclassical architecture and winding side-streets, dotted by art deco, neo-gothic, and other styles. Santiago's cityscape is shaped by several stand-alone hills and the fast-flowing Mapocho River, lined by parks such as Parque Forestal. The Andes Mountains can be seen from most points in the city. These mountains contribute to a considerable smog problem, particularly during winter. The city outskirts are surrounded by vineyards and Santiago is within a few hours of both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Santiago's steady economic growth over the past few decades has transformed it into a modern metropolis. The city is now home to a growing theater and restaurant scene, extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping centers, and a rising skyline, including the tallest building in Latin America, the Gran Torre Santiago. It includes several major universities, and has developed a modern transportation infrastructure, including a free flow toll-based, partly underground urban freeway system and the Metro de Santiago, South America's most extensive subway system. Santiago is the cultural, political and financial center of Chile and is home to the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations. The Chilean executive and judicial powers are located in Santiago, but Congress meets in nearby Valparaíso.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league. A total of 30 teams now play in two divisions, the American League (AL) and National League (NL), with 15 teams in each. The AL and NL operated as separate legal entities from 1901 and 1876 respectively, until 2000, when they were merged into a single organization known as Major League Baseball. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, in 2000 the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. The organization also oversees minor league baseball leagues, which comprise about 240 teams affiliated with the major-league clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States and is the United States' 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border in the Atlantic Ocean with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the west and north. The state of New York, with an estimated 19.8 million residents in 2015, is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City, the state's most populous city and its economic hub.

With an estimated population of nearly 8.5 million in 2014, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York City Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City is a global city, exerting a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York City is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% live on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th century Duke of York, future King James II of England. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.

Major League

Major League may also refer to:

Sport