Scorpions sign first tryout participant

Published on April 7, 2005 under Golden Baseball League (GBL)
Yuma Scorpions News Release


(Yuma, AZ) – The Yuma Scorpions announced today that they have signed former Yuma Bullfrogs' starting 3rd baseman Henry Calderon to a contract. Calderon becomes the first player that participated in the recent two-day local player tryouts this past weekend to be signed by the team. Calderon was one of two players that participated in both days of the tryouts.

Calderon certainly brought more experience to the tryouts than most. The product of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic has been in professional baseball since the Kansas City Royals signed him as a 18-year-old hitter back in November of 1995. Calderon spent his first two seasons splitting time between shortstop and 3rd base for the Royals' Rookie level teams in Florida. Calderon responded with speed and average, batting .291 with 11 doubles and 13 stolen bases in 1996. Calderon moved to the Royals' Class A affiliate in Spokane in 1998 and became a force, batting a whopping .337 with 9 homers, 17 doubles and 19 stolen bases. He was in the top 5 in four offensive categories and earned the nod as the top 3rd Baseman on the Northwest League's All-Star team. The next season was spent at Class A Charleston, West Virginia, and while Calderon struggled at the plate, he was a terror when he reached base, stealing a career-high 33 bases. Calderon got his first chance at AA ball in 2001 with Wichita, and hit a respectable .263 with 5 homers and 21 doubles in 97 games for the Wranglers.

2002 would give Calderon his first taste of independent league baseball... and of Yuma. After Calderon's struggles at the plate early in the Wranglers' 2002 season led the Royals to release him, Bullfrogs' Manager Lonnie Goldberg came calling. Calderon rewarded Goldberg with the most well-rounded season of his career, hitting .293 (and batting over .300 most of the season) with 5 homers, 54 runs batted in, and a dozen stolen bases... all while being one of only two players to play in all 90 Bullfrogs' games that year. But after the Bullfrogs' demise after that season, Calderon was searching for work again, and after only 10 games in 2003 with the Gary Railcats of the Northern League, Calderon came back to his newfound home in the Desert Southwest to be with his new wife and daughter. Calderon looked at the Scorpions' tryouts as one more shot, and made the most of it. "He's extremely professional," said Scorpions' Manager Benny Castillo. "He came into tryouts, and did everything we asked of him. He knows he still has to win a spot on the team, but we're very happy to have Henry on the team, and we like the example he sets-on and off the field." Castillo expects Calderon to battle for the starting shortstop position when training camp opens May 10th at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma.

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