Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood was abuzz with the word that a local kid had landed a gig with the city’s professional sports team. No, I don’t mean Mike McCarthy, the Greenfield native who was hired as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach last month. I’m talking about 30-year-old Cam Belago, who got a job as a bullpen catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates three days later. The kid made it to the big time. Maybe not in the role he dreamed of as a child, but he made it.
So proud of our Central Catholic Baseball Alum Cam Balego @CBalego95 on landing the bullpen catcher role with the Pittsburgh Pirates!!! #RollVikes #MenofCentralhttps://t.co/h59VVhtkqO pic.twitter.com/XHmaeiFk2X
— Central Catholic Baseball (@baseball_vikes) February 16, 2026
The Kick
Balego told Myrtle Beach Pelicans reporter Noah Cloonan that he grew up in a hockey family but fell in love with baseball in the first grade. If you’re a baseball junkie, you’ve seen him before. You just don’t remember it. On May 3, 2019, while playing for the Pelicans, the Chicago Cubs’ High-A affiliate, he was part of a defensive play that went viral. Balego was playing first base in the Pelicans’ home ballpark, then known as TicketReturn.com Field—thank the baseball gods that that name was eventually changed—against Salem. In the first inning, Salem’s Marco Hernández pushed a bunt into the no-man’s land between first and second base, where only pitcher Javier Assad could field it.
As Balego explained to Tyler Maun of milb.com, “Our pitcher was the only guy that could’ve made a play on the baseball, so I shot right to the bag. Right before that, I told our second baseman to be ready for a push bunt because we got the scouting report on it. I saw the push bunt and went to cover the base and saw Javier pick it up. I was like, ‘Oh, this is an easy play.’”
However, Assad bobbled the ball. As it bounced on the ground and the speedy Hernandez was approaching the bag, Assad saw his only alternative was to kick the ball to Balego. From about 10 feet away, Assad’s kick came fast and right on line. Balego snagged it to record the out. Maybe he inherited some goalie reflexes from his hockey-oriented family.
You’ve seen the play. Now hear what it was like for @Pelicanbaseball first baseman Cam Balego to be on the receiving end of the unlikeliest of putouts.
👟⚾️: https://t.co/bWwcVonX0E pic.twitter.com/feTitKDuO5
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) May 4, 2019
“It honestly caught me off guard,” continued Balego. It was reminiscent of a play on July 5, 1989, when Cincinnati Reds right fielder Paul O’Neill fumbled a single and kicked the ball right at first baseman Todd Benzinger, freezing a runner who would have otherwise scored. O’Neill’s Baseball Reference page indicates that he bats left, throws left, and kicks left. Assad’s Baseball Reference page doesn’t indicate what leg he kicks with.
The Long and Winding Road
Balego was a three-year starter at shortstop for Central Catholic High School, which produced athletes such as Sam McDowell and Dan Marino. While at Central, Balego was chosen as the Most Valuable Player in the 2013 WPIAL All-Star Game. That’s the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League, or as we say in Pittsburgh, “the Whippial.” Initially, he committed to playing ball at Walsh University, a small school in Canton, Ohio. He changed his mind while playing in a summer league in Youngstown, Ohio. His coach recommended Mercyhurst North East, then a two-year liberal arts college in North East, Pennsylvania, where his son was the baseball coach. Playing at the junior college level, he was named the 2014 Player of the Year and made the All-Region First Team. After his lone season there, he transferred to Division II Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he played for three more seasons.
As the shortstop for the Mercyhurst Lakers (Erie is near Lake Erie, for those of you who don’t know your Pennsylvania geography), he hit .340/.451/.541, 15 HR, and 107 RBI, while stealing 17 bases in 24 attempts. Meanwhile, the accolades kept coming:
- In 2016, named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference First Team.
- In 2016 and 2017, named to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference First Team.
- In 2016, selected to the Coastal Plains League (where he played summer league ball) All-Star Team.
- In 2017, named First Team All-Atlantic Region by the American Baseball Coaches’ Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
Some might say that it was “only” Division II. The guess here is that Balego wouldn’t care for that suggestion. “Division II is extremely overlooked,” Balego told Cloonan. “People don’t realize the gritty players that come out of Division II baseball, so that mindset helped in minor league baseball. . .”
Balego worked out for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates at Wild Things Park, a 45-minute drive from Pittsburgh and home of the Washington Wild Things, an independent team in the Frontier League. But it was the Cubs who drafted him in the 30th round of the 2017 June Amateur Draft. He joined their Rookie League in Arizona and made an immediate impact, playing all over the infield, mostly at third base, and hitting .286/.385/.449. Those AZL Cubs won the league championship in a best-of-three series against the AZL Giants. Balego was one of the heroes in the one-game quarterfinal against the AZL Brewers, clubbing a two-run home run and a double.
However, there was a position switch in the works. When the Cubs drafted Balego, they informed him that they wanted to take a look at him as a catcher. His only exposure to the position was catching some bullpens at Mercyhurst, but he was interested in whatever paved the path to the major leagues. He spent 2018 at short-season Eugene and Single-A South Bend. It was at the latter that he appeared in 12 games as a catcher. Unfortunately, due to injuries, his season at South Bend ended up being a short season as well.
With the Pelicans in 2019, plans for Balego to play catcher were shelved for the most part, as he was again employed all over the infield. He was one of Myrtle Beach’s better hitters. He finished the season hitting .247/.368/.386. 12 HR, and 48 RBI. His average had been a team-leading .288 in May before he cooled off at the end. But his OBP was nothing to sneeze at, and his 125 wRC+ led the team.
The Cubs organization planned that 2020 would be the year Balego went into full-time catching. So, what happened this time? Well, COVID-19 happened, canceling the minor league season. In 2021, he bounced around at three levels, with the injury bug limiting him to 24 games. After starting out hitting 8-for-50 at Double-A Tennessee in 2022, the Cubs released him.
But he wasn’t done yet. Balego had a few offers and decided to go the independent route and finish 2022 with the Wild Things, where at last, he was a full-time catcher. He was just what the Wild Things needed. Washington’s regular catcher, Alex Alvarez, was hitting in the low .200s. In 22 games, Balego hit .304/.382/.544 and was more than adequate behind the dish, throwing out 26 percent of would-be base thieves. His last hurrah as a player came in 2023 with the independent Milwaukee Milkmen, where he hit .301/.393/.499, 13 HR, and 63 RBI in 92 games, while being named to the American Association All-Star Game.
Greenfield Proud
Pittsburgh’s hometown pride is surpassed only by the individual communities within or surrounding the city. So it is with Greenfield, a small section tucked away in Pittsburgh’s southeast, a friendly community of modest homes separated by a few feet, where doctors and lawyers mix on equal terms with laborers, gamblers, and hipsters, anchored by Hammer Field, St. Rosalia Church, and the Giant Eagle supermarket. McCarthy and Balego each played in the Greenfield Baseball Association in their youth. Residents remember Balego wearing his uniform for the entire day on game days. After McCarthy was the Green Bay Packers’ head coach for a couple of years, it was revealed that he was giving significant financial support to the GBA and St. Rosalia’s. The school has since closed. It’s rumored that he’s still supporting the GBA. Hey, if you hear it at the Giant Eagle, that’s considered a reliable source in Greenfield.
They’ll tell you that the GBA is Pittsburgh’s oldest organized youth baseball league, founded in 1951. They remember the day in 1959, when the GBA saw three no-hitters. The pitchers were 12-year-olds Billy Weber, who tossed a perfect game, and George Mycoff and George’s 9-year-old brother, Cart. Gary Green, a major league shortstop for three teams in 1986 and 1989-92, played in the GBA. His father was Fred Green, who pitched in the majors for five years, including with the 1960 World Series champion Pirates.
Former baseball executive Larry Lucchino grew up in Greenfield. So did “Greenfield Jimmy” Smith, who played in the major leagues from 1914-22, including with the 1919 Cincinnati Reds, who defeated the Chicago White Sox in the famous “Black Sox” World Series. Smith, an infielder who hit .219, was known more for his value as a bench jockey. Smith was also the father-in-law of boxer Billy Conn, and he wasn’t happy about that. Tensions reached their peak in 1942 at a party for Conn’s son’s First Holy Communion. Conn had enough of Smith barking orders at him, and a brawl broke out. Conn punched Smith in the head and broke his right hand, costing him a lucrative heavyweight title rematch with Joe Louis.
Now Balego has made it to the majors, like Green and Smith before him. Just know that if you’re at PNC Park this summer and the guy next to you is focused more on the goings-on in the Pirates bullpen instead of the ball game, cut him some slack. He just might be from Greenfield.
