Peter Caliendo and Jerry Krause former General Manager of the Chicago Bulls and current White Sox International Scout visit during the 18 u World Championships in Thunder Bay Canada. Coach Caliendo was there representing the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) as a Technical Commissioner.
 
 
 
 

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients

 

Tom Bonekemper

Atlantic Collegiate League


Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Peter Caliendo in Japan visiting with Japanese officials to work with them in hosting Japanese teams in the USA and bringing American teams to compete in Japan. Talks are curretnly going on to take the baseball coaches video library web site which trains and certifys coaches and promote the site in Japanese throughout all of Japan.
  
Photo of Peter Caliendo at Japanese High School tournament called Koshian.  
  
  
  
For the love of the game
 
  
  
by kent mcdill, Schaumburg Magazine
The parents of Peter Caliendo indulged their teenage son’s passion for baseball and sent him to a summer-long camp in Missouri.Coach Caliendo meets with Softball Star

Past President Pete Caliendo and Board Member Dave Cook met with softball superstar Jennie Finch recently to discuss the upcoming Pitch & Hit Awards Banquet.
  

Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.

Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.

His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,

Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.

“I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”

Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.

But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.

“I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”

In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.

“There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”

Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would in the summer 2010 need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.

But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.

Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.

“I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said.

In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level.

Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts.

So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer.

That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

“This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.”

The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home.

(For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)

 

  
CALIENDO SPORTS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES SPECIAL SPONSORSHIP WITH MIZUNO USA INC.
  
” Mizuno has had some of the best baseball equipment for many years and we are proud to have them as one of our sponsors for our Caliendo Sports International programs” Peter M. Caliendo, President, Caliendo Sports International.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
CALIENDO SPORTS CAMP IN LOMBARD, ILLINOIS ENDED WITH A GREAT WORK OUT AND EVLAUTION FOR THE PLAYERS.
” Its great to see young players who are motivated in becoming better and taking their evaluations very serious”, Peter Caliendo, Professional Skills coach
    
  
  
USA Baseball Gears Up For 2010 NTIS
National Team Identification Series to help Organization select top talent across 13U, 15U, 17U age groups.
  
Play your best and you could play for your country.
  
Caliendo Sports getting ready to administer the USA Baseball National Team Identification Series (NTIS) in the Great Lakes Region. If you like a chance to try and make a USA Baseballs National Team go to www.greatlakesntis.com to register and receive more information. The Great Lakes Region consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
  
Caliendo Sports with its staff of highly qualified Coaches and Scouts will be selecting from the 6 state region, 3 regional great lake teams ages 17 U, 15U and 13U to compete September 9-12 in Cary, North Carolina, headquarters of USA Baseball the governing body of the sport of baseball. USA Baseball selects the national baseball teams in the United States.
  
Coach Caliendo returns from Mexico Citywhere he taught a level 3 baseball course for baseball coaches from across all of Mexico. The Mexican Baseball Federation has a program which certifies their coaches in the sport. Coach Caliendo in Picture 1 with the coaches from Mexico by the batting cage, Picture 2 with Alonzo Perez President of the Mexican Baseball Federation, Picture 3 the coaches certificate ceremony, Picture 4 coach Caliendo with the Mexico City Reds manager and Orlando Merced former MLB player coaching with the Mexico City Reds, Picture 5 coaches taking a break in the dugout and Picture 6 coaches doing the drills they have been taught in class. 
  
    
  
Schaumburg, Illinois, 6/3/10 

Coach Caliendo to teach a one week baseball course in Mexico City          

Coach Caliendo, former USA Baseball Coach and a veteran of coaching for 28 years will be heading to Mexico City next week for the Mexican Baseball Federation to give a one week baseball course for coaches across Mexico. This is the 5thyear in which coach Caliendo has given the course. The Mexican Baseball Federation has several levels of certification which ends with a certificate ceremony at the end of the course.          

“It is a thrill to be able to travel the world to share teaching ideas in the game of baseball to coaches who have a passion for the game. The Mexican coaches love baseball and understand how to have fun playing it. Baseball is a global sport which will only continue to grow at great numbers. The course is broken into class room with bio mechanical video analysis, theory, coaches outdoors doing the drills and teaching the drills to kids.” Peter Caliendo         

Coach Caliendo will also be heading too Japan, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.             

              

Chicago Illinois, May 20, 2010The Baseball Coaches Video Library (www.coachesvideolibrary.com), an online training and certification program is pleased to announce the launch of their new complete “Online Exam” program.  There is a series of 100 multiple choice questions covering all aspects of the game of baseball. All answers to the exam are compiled from our 250 plus video library drills and PDF files. “We urge all youth baseball associations to help their volunteer coaches by supplying them with the resources to become better coaches and teachers so that young players stay in the game longer. It is important volunteers are tested for their knowledge in teaching the game of baseball” Peter Caliendo, Co-Founder. Flexibility and convenience are the biggest advantages of online learning. Coaches can learn from any Internet-enabled computer. The Coaches Video Library online exam runs on all common browsers. The exam is fully hosted online and no complicated software or downloads are needed to take it. The online format offers convenience and flexibility. Coaches receive the exam results instantly and are notified whether or not they passed. Upon passing the exam certificates are available for download and printable.   Peter M Caliendo, the Co-Founder of the Coaches Video Library and President of Caliendo Sports International has worked educating coaches throughout the world for over 25 years.  Pete states “…in my experience in giving over a thousand coaches training programs, dads and moms who volunteer their time to work with kids in making sure that they have fun and learn playing the game need to have the support of their local and national organizations. All national baseball organizations offer some type of training for their coaches but most of the time it’s just for show and does not have enough substance. Some only have a background check and that is great to screen for any criminal activity  but we need coaches knowing how to teach at the very young levels where kids are most influenced, especially with a sport like baseball which involves some highly athlete skills. These programs need to be mandatory and coaches need to be evaluated yearly on how they are doing in running practices and coaching during games.   The goal of the Coaches Video Library is to enable the education of baseball coaches and players at all levels of ability, through the use of our specialized teaching and learning tools, thereby broadening and improving knowledge and skills and cultivating a greater passion for the great game of baseball. 

 

 

2011 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Meritorious Service Award Recipient 

  

Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation
 

 

Pete’s Postcards
Pete Caliendo in Japan
Peter Caliendo at the Osaka Dome in Japan to meet with Japanese baseball officials.Pete is building goodwill and hopes that our relationship will lead to USA teams travelling to Japan for competition as well as working togther to develop coaches’ training in both countries. 

The parents of Peter Caliendo indulged their teenage son’s passion for baseball and sent him to a summer-long camp in Missouri.Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.”I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.”I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.”There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.  “I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said. In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level. Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts. So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer. That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do. “This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.” The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home. (For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)
 

Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.

Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.

His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,

Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.

“I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”

Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.

But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.

“I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”

In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.

“There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”

Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would in the summer 2010 need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.

But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.

Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.

“I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said.

In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level.

Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts.

So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer.

That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

“This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.”

The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home.

(For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)

Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.

Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.

His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,

Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.

“I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”

Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.

But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.

“I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”

In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.

“There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”

Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would in the summer 2010 need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.

But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.

Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.

“I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said.

In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level.

Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts.

So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer.

That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

“This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.”

The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home.

(For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients

 

 

Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients

 

Tom Bonekemper

Atlantic Collegiate League


Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation

 

Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.

Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.

His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,

Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.

“I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”

Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.

But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.

“I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”

In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.

“There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”

Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would in the summer 2010 need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.

But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.

Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.

“I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said.

In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level.

Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts.

So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer.

That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

“This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.”

The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home.

(For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)

Twenty-five years later, Caliendo is one of the world’s most respected advocates for the game, and he leads his charge from his home in Schaumburg.

Caliendo is president of Caliendo Sports International, the company he built in order to promote baseball, and to develop instructional information for baseball coaches at all levels.

His baseball resume reads like that of a high-ranking international businessman,

Which is what Caliendo is, but his business is baseball.

“I’ve never had a real job,” Caliendo said. “I am extremely fortunate.”

Caliendo’s reach goes beyond our borders. He was technical director for the World Baseball Cup competition which ended last September in Europe. He was on the jury of appeal for baseball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, trying to get the game back into the Olympic circle. He is technical director for the International Baseball Federation, the world governing body for baseball.

But his most important work is right at home, where he has developed coaching aides to help volunteer coaches (i.e, parents) learn how to coach the game to their children and their neighbor’s children.

“I have coaching seminars for volunteer coaches,” Caliendo said. “I have an on-line coaching program where they can be certified. Our number one priority is to train our volunteers. We have to give them enough information to go ahead and train our kids.”

In the summer of 1975, at the age of 15, Caliendo left his home in Elmwood Park and attended his first Mickey Owen baseball summer camp in Springfield, Mo. A middle infielder of moderate talent and immense heart, Caliendo took to the full-time baseball atmosphere immediately.

“There was no swimming pool, no TV,” Caliendo said. “All there was was baseball. All we did was play baseball. I played 100 games that first summer, and umpired 100 games. I was there for 10 summers. Even when I went to college, I would leave as early as I could to go to camp and come back in September.”

Baseball allowed Caliendo to attend the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he studied criminal justice and played ball. When his college days were over, he was invited to play baseball professionally in Italy (he had family over there) but he was told he would in the summer 2010 need to have Italian citizenship because teams were only allowed three or four Americans and Caliendo simply wasn’t good enough to waste an American spot on.

But Caliendo was already set for a life after playing. His relationships garnered during his years at the Mickey Owen camp allowed him to begin the process of creating a baseball career.

Caliendo began by setting up baseball camps in the Chicago area, including one affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. They were called Baseball Schools USA, and at the time they were a new concept in the local baseball field.

“I had to talk to the leagues to convince them to let me set up in their communities,” Caliendo said.

In 1990, Caliendo was invited to work with a USA 16-and-under baseball team going to Brazil to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Eventually, Caliendo worked with USA Baseball to set up national teams at U-14, U-16 and U-18, competing in international competitions. He also travels with the teams around the world, promoting the game of baseball on an international level.

Caliendo also is currently regional coordinator for USA Baseball’s National Team Identification System, which sets up workouts to help identify players who could qualify to play for the national teams. Caliendo puts together teams of players from his six states at the different age groups and sends them on a trip to Cary, N.C. for a series of games which serve as national team tryouts.

So there you have Caliendo’s life: training volunteer coaches, helping to identify players for national youth teams and traveling with the youth teams to international tournaments, looking for the best competition the world has to offer.

That’s a lot of baseball, but for a man like Caliendo, that is also a lot of doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

“This didn’t happen by accident, but I didn’t plan it,” Caliendo said. “It all just kind of snowballed. Sometimes I talk to my mother back in Elmwood Park, and she still doesn’t know what I do. She just knows I didn’t go in the direction she wanted.”

The direction he ended up going was around a baseball diamond with four stops, eventually ending up at home.

(For more information on Caliendo’s camps, coaching DVDs and seminars, and the National Team Identification System, go to caliendosports.com, greatlakesntis.com and baseball.coachesvideolibrary.com.)

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients 

 

Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation

Pete Caliendo and former Bulls General manager and current White Sox international scout Jerry Krause visit in Thunder Bay Canada during the 18 u World Championships. Coach Caliendo served as a Technical Commissioner for the International Baseball Federation.

 

 

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients 

 

Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation

Peter Caliendo and Jerry Krause former Bulls General Manager and current White Sox International Scout visit during the 18 U World Championships in Thunder Bay Canada. Coach Caliendo was there for the International Baseball Federation as a Technical Commissioner.

 

2011 ABCA Meritorious Service Award Recipients 

Tom Bonekemper

Atlantic Collegiate League


Pete Caliendo

U.S. Baseball Federation