Heart scare hasn’t stopped Rockies’ Blair Calvo
Imagine that you’re 26 years old and can throw a 98 mph fastball. You’ve played baseball since you were 4 years old and dreamed of pitching in the major leagues since you were in high school.
In 2019, the Rockies draft you in the 23rd round out of Division II Flagler College ( Fla.) and you sign a professional contract with a meager $ 3,000 bonus. Less than 10% of those who play in the minor leagues ever play in a big- league game, so the odds are stacked against you.
Undaunted, you scale the minorleague ladder to DoubleA Hartford. You can see your dream on the near horizon.
Then, out of nowhere, your heart starts pounding wildly while you’re on the mound. It feels like it’s beating out of your chest. You’re rushed to the hospital in a police car and you’re hooked up to tubes and monitors. An EKG shows that your heart is racing at 260 beats per minute. There are tests and more tests.
Then one doctor informs you that you might not be able to play baseball ever again.
“I was very scared,” righthanded reliever Blair Calvo said during a phone interview from Rockies spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz. “The following day was probably the worst for me. They hadn’t done any of the tests, and doctors were telling me this and that. They were telling me I might have to completely change my lifestyle. I was scared, and I was sad.”
The “incident,” as Calvo refers to it, occurred May 31 in Hartford against the Reading Fightin Phils. Yard Goats catcher Willie Maciver, manager Chris Denorfia and athletic trainer Kelsey Branstetter came to the mound and saw that Calvo was in distress and unable to catch his breath. Calvo was taken to nearby Saint Francis Hospital.
After weeks of testing — Calvo had to wear a heart monitor 24/ 7 for 30 days and also consulted an electrophysiologist — he was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, a heart rhythm problem ( arrhythmia) caused by irregular electrical signals in the lower chambers of the heart. He was finally given the all- clear last summer and told to eliminate the large amounts of caffeine he’d been ingesting since high school. He returned to the Yard Goats on Aug. 6 and pitched in 13 games. The Rockies also sent him to the Arizona Fall League for some extra work. In 78 minor- league games, he’s 10- 7 with a 4.38 ERA.
Calvo, added to the Rockies’
40- man roster last fall, is in his first big- league camp. He’s working to better develop his sinker as his go- to pitch and complement his four- seam fastball, slider and changeup. He’ll likely begin the season with Triple- A Albuquerque.
If he pitches well, and if the Rockies seek bullpen depth — as they usually do — he might get called up and make his major league debut this season.
Calvo’s been through the wringer. He was a starting pitcher for two years at Eastern Florida State Junior College before the University of Pittsburgh offered him a scholarship. But he underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2016 and didn’t pitch in 2017. He struggled upon his return, going 1- 5 with a 5.24 ERA in 13 starts in 2018. That’s when he decided to go to Flagler, where he caught the Rockies’ attention.
After all that he’s been through, the question is asked, “Why are you still chasing the big- league dream?
“I think a better question is how do you not?” Calvo said. “It’s a game I’ve played my entire life and something I have dedicated every single day of my life to. I’ve been playing since I was 4 and it’s what I love to do.
“I love to show up at the park every day and put the pants on and put the cleats on and then go out and compete. Now it’s competing against some of the best players in the world.”
So the dream lives. Calvo figures that his work ethic has a lot to do with that.
“From Day 1 in rookie ball I just kept swinging the hammer, making a stride here and stride there,” he said. “But I’m nowhere close to finished. I don’t want to just be known as the 23rd- round pick who made the 40- man roster. I want to contribute to the big- league bullpen.”