We are living through strange days. Intoxicating ones. Suddenly, it seems like everyone is interested in baseball. It feels like we’re Jim Carrey in The Truman Show; everyone around us has always known how beautiful baseball is, how epic and thrilling it can be. They’ve always known. They were just pretending, acting like they didn’t know anything about it.
There has never been coverage like this: newspapers, television news, websites, accounts, storytellers. An absolute wonder. And yet, in the middle of all this, we still have to listen to the whining of the “they’re not Italian, wah wah, they don’t represent us” crowd.
So let’s explain it once and for all, because from now on those annoying comments will simply be deleted.
No, they are not Italian in the strict sense. And even less so in terms of baseball. They do not represent our domestic baseball movement. Our victory over the United States in baseball and the Italian rugby team’s win over England have similar symbolic value, but they are very different from a sporting standpoint. Dezenzo, Antonacci, Pasquantino, Caglianone, Berti and the others are not Italian in a baseball sense; they don’t have Italian passports.
And yet they are Italian because they chose to be, with enthusiasm.
They represent me because they chose to do it in the name of something that comes from far away.
On the day of the Miracle on Ice, coach Herb Brooks told his players before they faced the Soviet Union not to think about what was written on the back of their jerseys, their names, themselves. “Think about what’s written on the front.”
Yesterday, Vinnie Pasquantino told La Gazzetta the opposite.
“I think about what’s written on the back. But not for myself. For what ‘Pasquantino’ means. For my family.”
That means his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, all of whom came from the province of L’Aquila.
The general manager of this wonderful Italian team is Ned Colletti, who previously held similar roles with the San Jose Sharks of the NHL and with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. After the victory over the United States, he told USA Today:
“I’m not ashamed to say that I cried. We played against one of the strongest teams ever and we won. We did it.”
But above all, he said this:
“I reminded these guys that their great grandparents, their grandparents, their parents came to America looking for a better life. Italians were considered outsiders for much of that time. But look at who helped build the New York subway. Italians helped build the Empire State Building. Italians cut hair and made shoes. Italians took on any responsibility they could just to integrate and have the opportunity to live in this country. You are the children of those people. Do it with pride. If we win enough games, we’ll never again be considered outsiders.”
These strange, memorable days are doing exactly that. They are making Italy talk about baseball and making America talk about Italy.
But still, some people just want to complain.
Yesterday on The Pat McAfee Show, the ESPN program hosted by the former football player, our Captain Italy, that’s what La Gazzetta calls him today, Vinnie Pasquantino appeared as a guest.
“Representing the great country of Italy.”
And he introduced himself like this, in Italian:
“BUONGIORNO FROM HOUSTON…”
Mario Salvini is a sports writer for Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy. He has been covering Italian baseball for many years.
