The third team in our round of proposals is Italy. That other European baseball superpower is participating in Baseball Week for the seventh time, but never managed to win the tournament. Indeed, the teams they trailed in those earlier participations can be counted on one hand.
MIKE PIAZZA
The big lookout for the Azzurri again this summer is national coach Mike Piazza. The Hall of Famer has been wielding the scepter in the land of his grandparents for several years now and will hope to improve on the sixth spot from two years ago. He will likely do so, as he did in 2022, with a mix of players from the Italian league and (former) Minor Leaguers with Italian roots.
The question is whether he will fall back on older (often also South American) stars from Serie A or whether – as he did two years ago with the then only 17-year-old Diego Gergolet – he will also give youth a chance.
That last-place finish from the previous edition, by the way, is distorted, because in the group stage, the Southern Europeans had still been surprisingly good. In that, they already made the Kingdom team very difficult (2-1 loss), while winning from both Curação and Cuba. However, the latter team proved too strong again in the duel for the fifth and sixth spots.
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
The Italians and their espresso machine were the big surprise a year later at the World Baseball Classic. In Pool A, where, as at Baseball Week, they faced the Kingdom team, Cuba ánd Chinese Taipei, they bumped up to number two, as only Cuba had fewer runs scored. That team full of Major Leaguers, however, will be a difference of night and day from the Italian squad that will be back in action next summer in Haarlem.
Mike Piazza’s (American) influence on Italian baseball is starting to become more and more visible. For example, after good performances with Italy Under-12, 13-year-old Mathieu Silva was given the chance to spend nine months in baseball training in America earlier this year. So Italy does seem to be benefiting from its famous figurehead, but whether they can reap the benefits of that already in this Baseball Week remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the playing schedule is known and so we know that, as in the previous edition, the Italians will begin their Baseball Week with a game against the Kingdom team. This duel of eternal rivals is scheduled for Saturday night. A meeting with the European champion from Spain awaits the next day.
Copyright photo: FIBS.IT