TAMPA, Fla. — This summer, a group of Tampa Bay area high school baseball players will travel to northern Italy as part of an international service and cultural exchange mission called the Global Diamond Initiative.
Andrew Turner, a long-time Bay area baseball coach, took his first steps as a child in the small mountain towns of northern Italy and has been there every summer since. Last year, his son, Athen, was able to play baseball in the small town of Porcia, and it left an impression.
“They were such gracious hosts, and when we met them, they (were) people you want to help,” Turner said after a recent practice. “It was just something we really wanted to be involved in to help them grow the game.”
This summer, Turner put together a group of 12 Bay area players from five high schools to play a three-game friendly in July against a team in Porcia, Italy.
The team has held fundraisers for equipment needed for the team in Porcia, to one day help them build a field of their own.
“We wanted to bring these guys over there and maybe be able to rejuvenate them and realign their perspectives about what the game looks like,” Turner said.
His son has seen it firsthand, and he hopes every one of his teammates comes away the same message he did after last summer.
“We are definitely grateful for what we have here, and they (my teammates) need to realize that. It’s not only to go over there and win every game, it’s to help them realize we are there to help them,” said Athen, who plays baseball at Seminole High School.
Proof that baseball really is the international language, and on this trip it will be forming a bond that goes way beyond the diamond.