by Ray Glier, USA Today
ATLANTA – Chris Colabello would never grow fatigued at the question, “How long are you going to do this for.” For seven years he was an Independent League baseball player, unclaimed by all organizations, even the worst organizations, except for the 22 days in 2006 when the Tigers signed him, then abruptly released him and he went back to Indy ball.
The ridicule would pop up again and again in the form of those questions. People do not always say exactly, “How long before you start selling cars or insurance,” but Colabello understood people thought he was wasting his time.
Colabello, 29, outlasted the questions and the ridicule. He arrived here Wednesday on a 6:25 a.m. flight from Rochester, N.Y., and a few hours later, without much sleep, made his major league debut for the Minnesota Twins against the Atlanta Braves. The first pitch he saw from Atlanta pitcher Paul Maholm, Colabello laced toward the right-center-field gap, but Gold Glove right-fielder Jason Heyward cut it off for an out.
Colabello was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and he has joined a team in a hole with an eight-game losing streak. He wouldn’t let that ruin his day, not after this bouncy career path.
“Indescribable,” he said of his debut. “Everything I could have imagined it to be. Overall, an amazing experience. I’m kind of at a loss for words.”
Colabello played for Worchester of the Canadian-American League from 2005 to 2011. He is 6-foot-4, 218 pounds and can hit, but he could not get a big league organization to sign him except for that 3-week stay with the Tigers. Still, he would never walk away.
Colabello finally got a shot when the Twins signed him and put him in New Britain in the AA Eastern League in 2012. He was the runnerup MVP hitting .284 with 19 home runs. Colabello was invited to the Twins big league camp in 2013, but took a side trip to play for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. His father Lou played for Italy when baseball was part of the Olympic Games.
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