Born With Club Feet, Atholton Grad Awaits Possible Nationals' Promotion

Stephen Lombardozzi, by all accounts, was a typical young boy.

Lauren Lombardozzi, his cousin and now an athletic trainer in the Cal Ripken Collegiate League, remembers Stephen playing baseball with her brother at an early age.

And Jill Lombardozzi, the mother of Stephen, said her son was zooming around the house soon after he could walk - or run.

But being an active boy almost did not happen. Stephen Lombardozzi, a graduate of who grew up in Fulton, was born with club feet.

His mother said his feet were set in casts when he was in the hospital in Minnesota and he wore them reguarly for about the first three months of his life.

“It was a little scary in the beginning. It turned out okay,” said Jill Lombardozzi, who lives in Columbia.

Stephen Lombardozzi is now a promising second baseman with the Washington Nationals, who drafted him after one year of playing junior college baseball at St. Petersburg in Florida in 2008 in the 19th round. He has also played short and third this season for Syracuse, the top farm club of the Nationals.

“It is very exciting. It is a very exciting year for me. Who knows where I could end up?” Lombardozzi told Patch before the start of this season. “I am going into the season just as I have the last couple of years--I am just going to worry about playing and let the other stuff take care of itself. I think I am going to start at Double-A and see where I go from there."

The rosters of Major League teams expanded Sept. 1, and Lombardozzi, whose father played in the majors, could be called up by the Nationals. The Syracuse season ends Monday so Lombardozzi, according to reports, may head to Washington after that.

"I am anxious to see what happens," his mother told Patch this week. "I have been through this before with Stephen's dad," who is divorced from Jill Lombardozzi.

A switch-hitter, the younger Lombardozzi hit .309 in 65 games this season for the Class AA Harrisburg (PA) Senators of the Eastern Legue before he was promoted to Class AAA Syracuse of the International League in June.

In his first 65 games with Syracuse he hit .315 with four homers and 28 RBIs. His numbers were nearly identical with both Harrisburg and Syracuse this year in almost every offensive category.

Lombo made just two errors with Harrisburg and had not made an error in games through Wednesday with Syracuse. He began this season as the 13th best prospect in the Nationals' system, according to Baseball America.

When Lombardozzi smashed a home run to right field at Syracuse on August 8, sitting behind home plate was Bob Boone, the assistant general manager/vice president, player development, for Washington.

"He does everything well," Boone said earlier this season.

(Later in that game in Syracuse, Lombardozzi struck out against Buffalo pitcher Mike O'Connor, who grew up in Ellicott City and has pitched for the Nationals and Mets in his career.)

"It is remarkable," Doug Harris, the director of player development for Washington, said of Lombo's consistency. "He is a high contact guy. He has a great pre-game routine. He is very prepared."

And what about a possible promotion to the Nats? "His performance has been on the same level with every promotion that he has had. I don't want to speculate, but he has performed on a level to warrant that," Harris, a former minor league pitcher with the Orioles, said in late August.

Lombardozzi's father, also named Steve, was a second baseman for Minnesota when the Twins won the World Series in 1987. The family moved to Howard County after his baseball career, in part because he had brothers living in Virginia and Pennsylvania. All three of the brothers played college baseball in Florida.

"I think it has to do with him," the younger Lombardozzi, when asked of his all-out approach to the game, said of his father. "He taught me to do everything 100 percent, to the fullest."

Did he spend this season focusing on a big league callup? "I think it is something that could possibly happen. I don't think about it too much," he said.

"I don't think he is surprising anyone anymore," said Paul Tinnell, the Florida-based scout for the Nationals who signed Lombardozzi. "The first time I saw him was in the fall before his senior year (at Atholton). He was playing in Jupiter (Florida) and he had great awareness on the field. That really stood out. He never wastes an at bat."

And what about a possible promtion to the Major Leagues? "I would be happy for that," Tinnell said.

And so would the Lombardozzi family, which has already had its share of athletic success.  Toni, the sister of Steve, played soccer at River Hill High before attending James Madison University.

"He has had a great year," his mother told Patch. And it will be get better with a promotion to the big leagues for the first time.