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Ex-Baseball Pitcher Held In Assault

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By GEOFF FOX gfox@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 7, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - A former Major League baseball player was charged with simple domestic battery Thursday afternoon after an argument with his ex-wife turned physical, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said.

Christopher M. Spurling's former wife said he "threw" her to the floor after a "minor dispute," a sheriff's report said. Spurling, 31, was a right-handed relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers from 2003 to 2007, according to Major League Baseball's official Web site.

Two of Spurling's children and another child visiting a home at 27247 Coffer Ridge in the Seven Oaks community witnessed the altercation, the report said. Spurling's 7-year-old daughter provided a statement that jibed with her mother's account of the incident.

A Dayton, Ohio, native, Spurling attended Miami University in Ohio before playing baseball at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, according to the Web site.

A 6-foot-6, 245-pound middle reliever, he missed the entire 2004 season because of "Tommy John surgery," a ligament-replacement operation often performed on a pitcher's throwing elbow.

There were no Major League statistics for Spurling last year and no record of him on the official Web site for Minor League Baseball. He has career totals of six wins, eight losses and a 4.32 ERA in 219 innings pitched.

He was being held without bail Friday at the Land O' Lakes Jail.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.

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