Late Bloomers and Success the Hard Way

Baseball is the home of many great stories of perseverance one new one went into the books today, May 22, 2013.  Chris Colabello labored for seven long years in the independent league in New England, finally getting a chance to sign with the Twins last year at 28 and play for New Britain in AA ball. 
This season, playing first for the AAA Rochester Red Wings, he was the bright light of our early season, going yard regularly, and batting over .300 (over .400 in May). Last night after midnight on the team bus riding back to Rochester from Allentown, our manager told him, to the cheers of his teammates, that he was going to the majors! 

Chris caught the early plane to Atlanta from Rochester and joined the Minnesota Twins as #55, playing his first major league game at right field! In the same game, relief pitcher Caleb Thielbar, who was called up earlier this week from Rochester pitched to hitless innings against the Braves, before being pulled for a pinch hitter who homered. Thielbar is also a product of the independent leagues, having played for the St. Paul (MN) Saints in 2011. 

Chris' story is almost like "The Natural" without the silver bullet! Good luck up there to both of these guys, who came to success the hard way!