Dominic Altobelli, our thirdbaseman, has made it to pros. As someone who watched Illinois games from the left field fence, I got to see a lot of Dom so that makes me happy.
I’m also happy for his parents who I got to know pretty well. They were kind enough to let me hitch a ride with them out to Columbus, Ohio for the Big Ten Tournament in May.
Mike Altobelli (former pro ball player himself and related to ex-MLB manager Joe Altobelli) is a proud father and would tell me that Dom had gotten a degree in 
finance and had already had a job in that field lined up.
Well, it’s nice that it was there (and quite honestly, it’s nice to see athletes with finance degrees, whew!) but Dom Altobelli will have to put that job on hold for now. He’ll be reporting to the Colorado Rockies. He was picked in the 16th round and 481st pick overall.
Altobelli had always shown promise with Illinois and had the talent. If you see him up close, he has what I would call a baseball player’s body. He started to break out last year but a shoulder injury slowed things down. He pretty much was out for 2008 season until the Tournament.
But in 2009, Altobelli really came on and came on strong. Playing everyday and batting cleanup, he seemed to get stronger as the year progressed. Dom batted .361 and led the team with 53 rbis. He was second on team in runs with 52 and just to show he had a little variety, he stole 7 bases.
And, this is important too, he was nice, polite kid.
Like I said, I saw a lot of Dom from my vantage point so I got some decent photos of him. Here are a few.
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Congratulations to Dom and his family!