Calabro Starts Off 2010 With a Bang
Florida Native Snags 41 Balls in First Week, Including Foul Ball
by Alan Schuster, March 10, 2010The first foul ball of the 2010 season, snagged by Mike Calabro on March 4.For Mike Calabro, baseball starts a lot earlier every year than it does for the average fan. While much of the country is still shoveling snow off their driveways, Calabro is enjoying Spring Training baseball at the warm-weather venues surrounding his Orlando, Florida home. Besides getting the first look at the newest crop of MLB players and teams, he also gets the first crack at adding baseballs to his collection. In the first week of 2010 Grapefruit League play, Calabro went right to work and gathered the first 41 balls of the season for the myGameBalls.com community, recording games of 12 balls, 11 balls, 9 balls, and 9 balls. In addition to recording his 12th and 13th double-digit games of his career, he also snagged his 28th career foul ball and first of the season. The foul ball, snagged at the Astros/Nationals game on March 4, was hit by J.R.Towles. So far Calabro has shown an uncanny ability to snag balls off the bat. Of his 41 balls, 34 of them were hit while only 6 were thrown (plus one found). These numbers come as no surprise, of course, when you look back over his snagging career. In 6 years, he has snagged 366 hit balls and only 50 thrown balls. Calabro will bring his trusty glove to a few more games this Spring and will surely chase down a fair share of BP homers to add to his total. He needs to stay on his game, however, because several skilled ballhawks are traveling to Florida and Arizona in the coming weeks to compete for the top spot on the leaderboard. Check out Mike Calabro's complete collection on his Member Page