J.R. House

J. R. House
House during his tenure with the Buffalo Bisons, triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, in 2010
Catcher
Born: (1979-11-11) November 11, 1979 (age 37) Charleston, West Virginia
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 27, 2003, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Last MLB appearance
August 19, 2008, for the Houston Astros
MLB statistics
Batting average	.167
Home runs	3
Runs batted in	4
Teams
Pittsburgh Pirates (2003–2004) Houston Astros (2006) Baltimore Orioles (2007) Houston Astros (2008)

James Rodger "J. R." House (born November 11, 1979) is a retired catcher in Major League Baseball who is currently manager of the minor league Jackson Generals, a Class AA affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A two-sport star in baseball and football in high school, House chose to pursue a professional baseball career after being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 5th round of the 1999 amateur draft.

However, he did leave baseball for one year in 2005 to try college football. He enrolled at West Virginia University and made the team as a backup quarterback, but returned to professional baseball after playing sparingly for the Mountaineers.

A top high school football player at Nitro, J.R. House set a national high school record with 10 touchdown passes in the 1998 West Virginia state championship game against Morgantown. He was the West Virginia high school football player of the year and also set a national record with 14,457 career passing yards. House is now fourth all-time behind Maty Mauk (18,932), Maty's older brother Ben Mauk (17,364) and Chris Leak (15,593). During his high school years, he spent fall semesters playing football at Nitro and spring semesters playing baseball at Seabreeze High School in Ormond Beach, Florida; he moved each winter with his father, who owns automobile dealerships in the Charleston and Daytona Beach areas.

House got his pro career off to a good start by hitting over .300 combined in Rookie League and short-season class A in 1999. In 2000, he batted .348 with 23 homers, sharing the South Atlantic League MVP with Josh Hamilton.

House was plagued by illness and injuries during his time in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. He missed a month of the 2000 season due to mononucleosis. In 2001, he was twice on the disabled list with bruised ribs. A year later, he had surgery three times - for an abdominal hernia, a torn muscle and Tommy John surgery. He was limited to 35 games in 2002 and 41 in 2003.