Hiram Gabriel Bocachica Colón (born March 4, 1976) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics, and San Diego Padres. Bocachica also played for the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Career

Major league career

He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the first round (21st overall) of the 1994 Major League Baseball draft and played for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Seattle Mariners before being released in 2005 and signed by Oakland Athletics from free agency.

Bocachica impressed scouts with his amazing spring training performance of 2006, and would have been on the MLB roster for that season, had he not suffered from a bone growth in his right hand. He was claimed off waivers by the San Diego Padres on May 31, 2007. He became a free agent at the end of the season.

Nippon Professional Baseball

Bocachica signed with the Saitama Seibu Lions on December 3, 2007. Despite playing only 78 games during the 2008 season, he hit 20 home runs, including one in the seventh game of the Japan Series, which the team won.^[2]

Atlantic League

On April 12, 2010, Bocachica, along with fellow MLB alums Brian Barton and Tike Redman, was signed by the Bridgeport Bluefish for the 2010 season.^[3]

Immediately upon arriving in New York, Hiram was called by a friend who was coaching in Mexico. He briefly played with the Broncos de Reynosa in Mexico, but later returned to Bridgeport.

Family

Hiram is married to his wife Jocelyn and has two daughters and a son.