Background and career
Bradley Thomas Lidge (born December 23, 1976), nicknamed "Lights Out", is an American archaeologist and former professional baseball pitcher. Lidge played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 2002 to 2012. He played for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals. Beginning his career as a relief pitcher for the Astros, Lidge became the team's closer in 2004 and rose to become one of the best in baseball, making an All-Star appearance in 2005. However, after struggles in that year's postseason and through the 2007 season, he was eventually moved out of the closer role. He was traded to the Phillies in 2008, where he returned as a closer and went a perfect 41-for-41 in save opportunities over the course of the regular season, winning the Delivery Man of the Year Award, National League (NL) Rolaids Relief Man Award, NL Comeback Player of the Year, and making another All-Star appearance. In the 2008 postseason, Lidge tied the record for most saves in a single postseason, and made the final out of the World Series for the Phillies. Injuries limited Lidge in the final four seasons of his career, eventually retiring in 2012 after a brief stint with the Nationals. He recorded 225 saves in his career. Lidge threw a four-seam fastball that consistently reached 95–97 miles per hour, as well as a hard, sharp breaking slider that ranged from 85 to 87 mph. He also had a cutter of the variation. After completing a degree in religious studies in 2008 and retiring from the MLB, Lidge became a professional archeologist, focusing on excavations related to the Etruscan civilization.
Lidge was born in Sacramento, California on December 23, 1976. His family moved to Englewood, Colorado when Lidge was very young. Growing up, Lidge played football, basketball and baseball among other sports. He attended Cherry Creek High School. Lidge initially played outfield but became a pitcher because Cherry Creek's outfield was populated by such draft prospects as Donzell McDonald. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 42nd round of the 1995 draft but did not sign.
Lidge attended the University of Notre Dame, where he played college baseball for the Fighting Irish. He won the Big East Conference player of the year award during his junior season under coach Paul Mainieri, leading the conference with an 8–2 record and 93 strikeouts in 80+1⁄3 innings.
Lidge was a first round draft pick by the Houston Astros in the 1998 MLB draft, chosen 17th overall as a compensatory pick from the Colorado Rockies, who had signed Darryl Kile in the offseason. Lidge missed parts of his first four professional seasons (at Quad Cities, Kissimmee, Round Rock, and New Orleans) with injuries, including a torn rotator cuff and a broken forearm that threatened his career. He would overcome these injuries, making his MLB debut on April 26, 2002, against the Atlanta Braves, serving as a middle relief pitcher in the Astros' bullpen. He started the only game of his career in September of that year against the Milwaukee Brewers. Lidge went 2-for-2 with a double and 2 RBIs at the plate, but was pulled when he strained an intercostal muscle in his ribcage after pitching three scoreless innings with four strikeouts, two walks, and a hit batsman.
In 2003, Lidge was the winning pitcher in the Astros' historic six-pitcher tandem which no-hit the New York Yankees on June 11. That year, Lidge was voted Astros Rookie of the Year by the Houston Chapter of the BBWAA. Following the trades of Billy Wagner in the 2003 off-season and Octavio Dotel in the summer of 2004, the Astros moved Lidge from setup man to closer. He set a new National League record for strikeouts by a reliever with 157, passing Goose Gossage's total of 151 set in 1977. The mark is fourth all-time for relievers, behind Dick Radatz's 181 in 1964, Mark Eichhorn's 166 in 1986, and Radatz's 162 in 1963. In 2004, hitters swung and missed at Lidge's strikes almost 42% of the time; for balls out of the strike zone, batters missed more than 70% of the time. Baseball writer Joe Posnanski noted, "I have no doubt that Brad Lidge, that one year, was one of the most unhittable pitchers in the history of baseball."
In his first All-Star Game appearance in 2005, Lidge pitched the bottom of the seventh, striking out all three batters he faced. He threw 11 pitches combined, two of them balls, to Melvin Mora, Mike Sweeney, and Garret Anderson, who did not make contact with any of Lidge's pitches. Lidge became the first pitcher to strike out the side in his first All-Star appearance since Bill Caudill and Dwight Gooden in 1984. Lidge finished the 2005 regular season with a 2.29 ERA and a career-high 42 saves. He ranked third in the National League in saves and became the second Houston pitcher ever to record at least 40 saves in one season, following Wagner. During the NLCS, Lidge gave up a three-run home run to the Cardinals' Albert Pujols in Game 5 in Houston, forcing a Game 6 back in St. Louis, which the Astros would win to clinch their first World Series berth in franchise history. In his next appearance, Game 2 of the World Series in Chicago, Lidge gave up a walk-off home run to Scott Podsednik. He then allowed the series-winning run and hit in Game 4 to go 0–2 in the series and complete the White Sox' sweep of the Astros.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
