ARLINGTON, Texas – If you spend seven years playing for the Worcester Tornadoes there’s a good chance you’re a baseball nut. Chris Colabello certainly fits the description.
“Baseball’s been my life, my whole life,” says Colabello. “That’s it. There’s never a day that goes by that I don’t want to be on a field or competing or watching the game or learning about the game or trying to get better.”
That should mean Monday qualifies as a good day for the 31-year-old first baseman. Colabello helped the Toronto Blue Jays power their way past the Texas Rangers, hitting a home run and a double as Toronto forced a decisive ALDS Game 5 with an 8-4 win.
Last year this time Colabello was playing golf and caring for an injured thumb. This October he’s not about to take the postseason experience for granted.
“I’m not ready for this to end yet. I don’t think anybody here is. This is the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball,” Colabello said. “None of us are ready for this to be it.”
Colabello’s well aware that it can all end quickly. But while it lasts he finds a certain amount of freedom in the team-first mentality the postseason demands. You’re often one big swing from turning a series around.
“To me that’s a beautiful thing,” Colabello said. “It’s a pretty relaxing feeling more than anything else. When you make it about helping the team more than about helping yourself it alleviates a lot of the pressure.”
Colabello has added value in Toronto all season long thanks to a powerful right-handed swing he honed while playing for the independent Tornadoes from 2005-11. Fully recovered from the thumb injury that limited him to 59 games last year, he hit 15 home runs with an .886 OPS for the Blue Jays. His playoff numbers are even better, with a home run and two doubles in three games.
“He’s doing what he’s been doing all year long,” said Edwin Encarnacion, another late-blooming right-handed slugger. “He has a good approach at the plate. He doesn’t go swinging at everything. He’s looking for something and when he gets it he doesn’t miss it.”
Kevin Pillar first noticed the swing as an opponent. The Blue Jays claimed Colabello on waivers in December and gave him a look in Spring Training before sending him to triple-A without much promise of a promotion. Pillar’s not surprised he made his way back.
“He’s one of the best pure hitters in the league,” Pillar said. “He probably doesn’t get enough recognition for what he’s been able to do … a lot of people wrote him off, but he’s extremely confident.”
Thanks to homers from Colabello, Pillar and Josh Donaldson, the Blue Jays finally got the offensive production manager John Gibbons asked for soon after arriving in Texas.
“We need a big outburst with the bats, score a lot of runs really,” Gibbons said Saturday. “We score and win, we score in bunches. That’s kind of our trademark.”
Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Blue Jays players spoke soon after arriving in Arlington and told one another to keep things simple.
“It was a brief talk. We all just reminded ourselves to be ourselves. Really that was it,” Colabello said. “Kawa (Munenori Kawasaki) gave us a nice message in Japanese. None of us understood it but we all laughed.”
At the time the Blue Jays were clear underdogs. Now they’ve got a legitimate shot at advancing with Marcus Stroman set to pitch against Cole Hamels Wednesday. Colabello says he knew this kind of turnaround was possible.
“I don’t think there was a guy in our clubhouse who questioned that we were going to go back to Toronto for Game 5, not even for a second,” he said. “People kept asking us how monumental does it feel to win three games in a row. Well we’ve done that a lot this year and certainly if there’s anyone who’s capable of doing it it’s us.”
The work isn’t done yet, but all of a sudden the Blue Jays’ chances of completing their ALDS comeback and playing for the AL pennant seem realistic. For a baseball lifer like Colabello, that’s the best part of a ride he hopes will continue.
