Former U.S. Major League Baseball and Japanese league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez was hit by lightning and killed in his native Venezuela, an official said Monday.

 

The 33-year-old pitcher, who played for five MLB teams, was struck by lightning on Sunday night in the western state of Zulia, said Herman Bracho, the regional emergency management chief.

 

Gonzalez was riding a personal watercraft in Lake Maracaibo at the time, according to Antonio Olmos, a friend who witnessed his death.

 

"It was raining and he got down off his watercraft to grab another one," Olmos told the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama. "At that moment, lightning struck him in the neck and broke a gold chain he was wearing."

 

Gonzalez started in MLB for the Chicago Cubs in 1997 and later played with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets.

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/26/...it-Gonzalez.php

Edited May 26, 200817 yr by Gregory Pratt

Balta you are the science freak,did him wearing a gold chain play a big factor in him getting hit.I know the biggest factor is that he was on the water in a storm but I found it kind of strange that it hit him in the chain.

I find this title very misleading. I expected it to be about a pitcher that was struck by lightning while pitching. It's like starting a thread titled "Satellite dish installer killed by lightning," and then have the article say it happened while he was mowing his lawn.

Edited May 27, 200817 yr by Milkman delivers

I should have written "ex-pitcher killed by lightning strike," you're right.