James Joseph D'Antona (born May 12, 1982 in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a former professional Major League Baseball infielder with the Arizona Diamondbacks. A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, D'Antona played baseball alongside future major league pitcher Craig Breslow at Trumbull High School, where their team won the LL State Baseball championship game. Jamie's Dad, Joe D'Antona, had been a catcher at Southern Connecticut State and had drawn the eye of professional scouts. He later became a coach on Jamie's Little League team.

A first and third baseman, Jamie played college baseball for Wake Forest University, where he had a .354 career batting average and 58 home runs. In 2002, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League. His season in Chatham was chronicled by author Jim Collins in his work, "The Last Best League". In 2003, He was the ACC leader in slugging percentage, home runs, and RBI.

Drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 2nd round of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft, D'Antona palyed for the 2003 Single-A Yakima, and was a Short-Season Single-A All-Star and Northwest League All-Star. He earned ACC Player of the Year honors as a junior in 2003 when he hit .360 with 21 home runs and 82 RBIs. Those numbers also earned him first team All-America honors from both Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The third baseman from Trumbull, CT led the ACC in home runs in 2003 and in RBIs in both 2001 and 2003.

In 2004, he played with High Single-A Lancaster and for Double-A El Paso. Jamie played for Double-A Tennessee in 2005, and in 2006 and was promoted to Triple-A Tucson for 2007. In 2008, D'Antona batted near .400 for the first 2 months, was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game, and won the Triple-A Home Run Derby in triple overtime against Detroit Tigers minor league infielder Mike Hessman.

D'Antona made his major league debut on July 22, collecting his first major league hit, a single, on the same day and in his first at-bat. He was also called back up to the D'Backs as a September call up. All told, he played in 18 games for the 2008 Diamondbacks, collecting 3 hits in 17 AB. Following the 2008 season, Jamie was released by the Diamondbacks so that he could sign with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Jamie talks about his experience in Japan HERE. He seemed to fall out of favor with new manager Takada while with the Swallows in 2009, when he was kept off the roster despite winning the monthly MVP award for July, and was .279 for the year (the 3rd best average among Yakult’s top team regulars), led the team in RBIs with 80 and had the highest average on the team with runners in scoring position at .338. He also had a slugging percentage of .484, second only to Aaron Guiel on the team and his 20 home runs was second only to the Canadian outfielder.

On January 12, 2011, the Florida Marlins signed him to a minor league contract. D'Antona was released by the Marlins on February 17, 2011. D'Antona returned to the Chatham Anglers as a hitting coach for the 2017 season. He was elected to the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)