Chris Colabello Should Inspire Us All

It took years for 29-year-old Minnesota Twins first baseman Chris Colabello to get a shot at the majors, but he was brought up from AAA May 22. Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

There are different ways to measure success in sports. Indeed, winning isn’t the only thing. Sticking around sometimes is the most important thing of all. Minnesota Twins first baseman Chris Colabello is one persistent guy, a player who refused to stay ignored and a player who, above all, refused to give up.

For more than a decade Colabello kept getting the message from expert judges of baseball talent that he wasn’t good enough. He came out of high school with a passion for the game and ended up playing at an NCAA Division II school, Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

When he finished college no Major League baseball club was interested in signing him, either. So off he went to compete in an independent league, figuring if he made a good showing in the Canadian-American League that someone would notice. Colabello made the good showing, but no one noticed, or cared.

Maybe it was because it sounded as if he was playing in a hockey league and swinging another kind of stick, but Colabello, who is now 29, kept coming back to the same league year after year without getting a sniff from the nearby Boston Red Sox, or even the Boston Bruins.

He would have performances batting more than .350 in the 92-game seasons and still not a nibble. It wasn’t as if the scouts couldn’t find the games, either because player after player from the league was granted a contract with a big-league club while he watched with envy. Dozens of guys came and went, given the opportunity Colabello seemed to have earned. Once, he had a three-week spring training look from the Detroit Tigers, but they decided against keeping him.

Back to the minor minors once more. Finally, in 2012, Colabello, who is an imposing 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, wangled a spot in Twins spring training. Colabello was also blessed with an agent that didn’t give up either. The Twins kept him, used him at AA and he hit the ball as if they were throwing watermelons up there. Colabello had an easier time getting noticed by Italy than MLB and he was chosen for that country’s World Baseball Classic team.

The Twins shipped Colabello to AAA this season and after a month-and-a-half of hitting .348, they brought him up to the big club. What an unlikely journey to a Major League debut. To say that Colabello has been used sparingly since he was promoted May 22 would be an understatement. Going into Tuesday’s play he had appeared in four games with 10 at-bats. So far he only has one hit.

On the other hand, it’s a fair bet that Colabello cherishes that one Major League hit thrill as much as another player’s World Series grand slam home run.