{"id":523802,"date":"2026-03-14T21:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:00:26","slug":"team-italy-embraces-the-cliche-and-the-deeper-meaning-as-upstart-darlings-of-the-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523802\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Italy embraces the cliche \u2013 and the deeper meaning \u2013 as upstart darlings of the WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Italy vs. Puerto Rico<\/a> and Japan vs. Venezuela<\/a> in the 2026 World Baseball Classic quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2013 Sal Fasano is a first-generation Italian-American, the son of immigrants from Calabria, the toe of the boot in southern Italy. He grew up proud of his heritage, big on values like respect and family, and loved all the movies you\u2019d imagine \u2014 \u201cRocky,\u201d \u201cGoodfellas\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

A backup catcher for 11 major-league seasons, Fasano is now the bullpen coach for Team Italy, a band of Balboas punching above their weight in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

They wear fine suits to the ballpark. They chug espresso shots from a machine in the dugout. They play Andrea Bocelli after victories. Pitcher Matt Festa wore a \u201cGabagool\u201d T-shirt<\/a> before a game this week. They do all the hand gestures<\/a> and kiss each other on both cheeks after home runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys have embraced the cliche,\u201d Fasano said, laughing by phone on Friday. \u201cThey\u2019ve really run with it, and it\u2019s all over social media. It\u2019s been fun to watch, and it doesn\u2019t really offend anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Team Italy, the only offensive thing is the lineup. In winning all four games in pool play, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with Puerto Rico on Saturday, Italy is hitting .294\/.398\/.640 while averaging eight runs per game. The pitchers had a 2.75 ERA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you we knew we were going to be 4-0, but I felt good that we have people here who care,\u201d said Ned Colletti, the Italy general manager. \u201cPeople here were going to be passionate about what they did, and their effort would be pure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The starting pitcher on Saturday, Sam Aldegheri of the Los Angeles Angels, is one of nine players in MLB history born in Italy \u2014 and one of just two, with former Seattle Mariners infielder Alex Liddi, to be raised there.<\/p>\n

Aldegheri, who also played soccer, said he was lucky to grow up just a few minutes from a baseball field in Verona. He hopes the WBC will help build momentum for a more sophisticated baseball complex in his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully kids are going to look at it and be like, \u2018OK, I\u2019m not going to try soccer \u2026 I\u2019m going to try baseball because I saw it on TV and I like it,\u2019\u201d said Aldegheri, who grew up rooting for the Red Sox because his older brother liked the Yankees. \u201cAnd maybe they\u2019re going to fall in (love) with the game like I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Sam Aldegheri struck out eight over 4 2\/3 scoreless innings during Italy\u2019s 8-0 win over Brazil in pool play.\u00a0 (Kenneth Richmond \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The team includes two other Italian natives, relievers Gabriele Quattrini and Claudio Scotti, who have played professionally in Italy\u2019s Serie A (Scotti also played briefly in the minors for the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets). Otherwise, it is made up almost entirely of Americans, with only one \u2014 the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 Aaron Nola \u2014 who has ever made an All-Star team.<\/p>\n

The captain, first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, is a star for the Royals, with 32 home runs last season and three against Team Mexico on Wednesday. His Kansas City teammate, outfielder Jac Caglianone, could have played for Puerto Rico, where his mother was born, but plays for the Italians because they reached out first<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For most players, though, this was their only chance to compete on the WBC stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure everyone would be thrilled to play for Team USA, but that team is loaded, anyway,\u201d Fasano said. \u201cThe second-best thing is playing for your lineage. And for the younger guys, it\u2019s a great opportunity to experience the best baseball atmosphere of their life, because this is like Game 5 of a playoff series every game. It\u2019s intense every inning. For a lot of guys, it\u2019s going to speed up their development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caglianone has played only 62 games in the majors, seven more than center fielder Jakob Marsee of the Miami Marlins. Sam Antonacci, the shortstop and leadoff man, has not played above Class AA. Neither has Dante Nori, the Canadian-born left fielder.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody here has gotten to know one another in such a short period of time and we\u2019ve all bonded so close because we do all share that one common thing, being Italian-Americans,\u201d said designated hitter Zach Dezenzo of the Houston Astros. \u201cI think that there\u2019s an overall just sense of family that comes from being an Italian-American, and everybody welcomes each other with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola, Aldegheri and Michael Lorenzen of the Colorado Rockies started three of the four games in pool play, firing 14 1\/3 scoreless innings. Greg Weissert, a solid reliever for the Boston Red Sox (he had a 2.82 ERA in 72 games last season), saved Italy\u2019s 8-6 upset of Team USA by striking out Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge.<\/p>\n

A baseline of talent and a lot of desire have gone a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a list, about 100 players, and then we started to put everything together of what we wanted and how we wanted it,\u201d said manager Francisco Cervelli, a Venezuelan native whose father emigrated there from Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it was getting closer to the deadline, you start knowing that this guy\u2019s not going, this guy\u2019s not going. So you start talking to players, and the most important (question was) do you really want to be here? You want to do it for the right reasons. You want to represent the country of your ancestors. And the feedback was positive and then that\u2019s what we got. This group of guys, they really want to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colletti, who spent 40 years in executive roles with the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, said he teared up after the victories over the U.S. and Mexico. His teams have been to five World Series, winning two, but he called this WBC \u201cthe most incredible, remarkable days\u201d of his career.<\/p>\n

Colletti, 71, said he knows plenty of people whose families dropped their Italian last names for fear of being unable to find work in the United States. They were lured by the promise of the new world and willing to build its infrastructure, the railroads and subways and skyscrapers.<\/p>\n

They were afterthoughts, Colletti said, but proved they could be much more. His team is doing likewise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand on the shoulders of our grandparents and our parents and people like that who took a chance, who didn\u2019t know what they were coming to except from what they had heard,\u201d Colletti said. \u201cSo there\u2019s great pride in that. There\u2019s pride for anybody who\u2019s been doubted and has a chance to prove that they do belong, that they are part of something. And I think when you have that combination, you have a chance to do great things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Italy vs. Puerto Rico and Japan vs. Venezuela in the 2026 World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,72364],"class_list":["post-523802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}