SAN DIEGO (AP) -Kelly Calabrese, the Padres’ sports therapist who was belittled on the air last year by Keith Hernandez, will leave the team before the All-Star break because she is pregnant.
The due date for her first child is Aug. 9.
“It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever dealt with,” Calabrese said.
Calabrese got some unflattering attention a year ago when Hernandez, an announcer for the New York Mets, spotted Calabrese in the San Diego dugout, high-fiving Mike Piazza after he’d hit a homer.
“Who is the girl in the dugout, with the long hair?” Hernandez said. “What’s going on here? You have got to be kidding me. Only player personnel in the dugout.”
Hernandez found out later in the broadcast that Calabrese was on the Padres’ training staff.
“I won’t say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don’t belong in the dugout,” Hernandez said.
Since she won’t be able to fly for the final six weeks of her pregnancy, Calabrese will be with the Padres until June 17, then will return to her offseason home in Cleveland to await the birth.
“Like I told everybody here, it’s going to be very hard for me to leave these guys in the middle of the season,” she said. “Every single one of them has told me, ‘You know what, once you hold that baby in your arms, you’re not going to think about baseball.’ “
Calabrese said she’ll arrange for assistant trainer Paul Navarro to pass out cigars to the team after the birth.
Calabrese and her husband, Eric, have chosen the name Timothy Joseph.
Add A Comment