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Thomas Ross House (born April 29, 1947) is an American former left-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball, as well as an author and a pitching coach.
Advancing quickly through the Braves' system, House made his major league debut on June 23, 1971, pitching one inning in relief of Pat Jarvis in the seventh inning of a 6–3 loss to the Montreal Expos. Retrosheet Boxscore: Montreal Expos 6, Atlanta Braves 3 Relying mainly on a curveball and a screwball, House was an important part of the Braves' bullpen in the mid-1970s. His best season was 1974, when he pitched innings pitched, all in relief, with a 1.93 earned run average (ERA) and a 0.98 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) ratio. His 38 games finished ranked seventh in the National League, and his 11 saves were good for fifth. House also ranked among the league leaders in those categories in 1975, when his 45 games finished ranked third, and his 11 saves placed tenth.
House was traded from the Braves to the Boston Red Sox for Roger Moret on December 12, 1975. At the time, the Red Sox had a surplus of and needed more bullpen depth. "Braves, Red Sox swap lefties," United Press International (UPI), Saturday, December 13, 1975. Retrieved May 1, 2020 After he spent 1976 in Boston, the Red Sox sold his contract to the Seattle Mariners, an expansion team, early in the 1977 season. House concluded his major league career after two seasons with the Mariners in 1977 and 1978. He retired with 29 wins, 23 losses, 34 saves, and a 3.79 ERA in 536 major league innings.
House became the pitching coach for the Texas Rangers in 1985, during which time he was notable for his work with Nolan Ryan. During Ryan's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 1999, he credited House as a positive influence on his career, saying:
While I was with I was very fortunate to have a pitching coach by the name of Tom House. And Tom and I are of the same age and Tom is a coach that is always on the cutting edge. And I really enjoyed our association together and he would always come up with new training techniques that we would try and see how they would work in to my routine. And because of our friendship and Tom pushing me, I think I got in the best shape of my life during the years that I was with the Rangers.
House has also worked as a coach for the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Chunichi Dragons, and Chiba Lotte Marines. He is an advisor with the American Sports Medicine Institute, and is the co-founder of the National Pitching Association. Through the NPA, he runs a series of camps and clinics for athletes, and markets a series of instructional videos for young baseball players. House has also written or co-written nineteen instructional books on baseball, as well as an autobiography.
In 1998, the American Baseball Coaches Association presented House with a lifetime achievement award.
House served as pitching coach for the USC Trojans from 2008-2011, when he retired from coaching.
In 2008, House worked as a consultant and pitching coach for the reality program The Million Dollar Arm. In this capacity, he trained two young Indian prospects, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel over a period of seven months. At the end of that time he had raised the velocity of both prospects' fastballs to major league levels, and the two signed professional baseball contracts with the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. The story of The Million Dollar Arm is dramatized in the Disney movie of the same name.
Recently, House has worked with several NFL quarterbacks, including, Dak Prescott, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Alex Smith, Carson Palmer, Cody Kessler, Matt Cassel, Jared Goff, Marcus Mariota, Andrew Luck, Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz, Terrelle Pryor, Tim Tebow, Andy Dalton, Blake Bortles, Matt Ryan, Mac Jones, and Bo Nix.
House has been one of the first to adopt "Neurophysiology," by pairing his mechanics and motion analysis with functional fitness to address an athlete's functional strength inefficiencies, sleep and nutrition to recover faster, and data driven mental and emotional assessment to uncover how athletes deal with the stress and anxiety of competition.
House has stated that "six or seven" pitchers on every major league staff in the 1970s were "fiddling" with steroids or human growth hormone. He attributes players' willingness to experiment with performance-enhancing substances to the permissiveness of the drug culture of the 1960s, and he believed that steroid use declined in Major League Baseball since the 1970s, as players have become more aware of the potential long-term drawbacks. House a 'failed experiment' with steroids
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