Baseball is a diamond shaped island that since 7 to 21 March will shine for the World Baseball Classic 2023. The reflections of this appointment also radiate to us, Italy, which, as in the previous four editions, will be there! An event that is equivalent to a World Cup since the Ibaf (International Baseball Federation) no longer organizes the official one since 2011.
Japan, Taiwan and islands will stage the first phase, while the grand finale will be held in the homeland of the sport, the United States. The Americans, holders of the trophy, can define themselves as the “masters”, the Japanese are no less having won the first two editions. In between, the victory of the Dominican Republic in 2013, still an island. Happy islands to which Cuba and Puerto Rico must also be added, by tradition and coat of arms. Baseball is not an easy landfall in Italy. Although we are one of the most titled countries on a continental level, second only to Holland for medals at the European Championships with the national team and with one of the most technically valid championships, the number of practitioners it does not take off, fluctuating around 22 thousand.
Per World Baseball Classic 2023 la Fibs (Italian Baseball and Softball Federation) tried to polish the blue diamond, with Mike Piazza to lead a large battery of Italian American players from Mlb (Major League Baseball). An incisive communication campaign with testimonials such as Helium and Fasoartists who have always loved baseball who have also played at high levels and Talisa Jade Ravagnani, former tissue of Striscia, nephew of the legendary coach of the Yankees, Joe Torre. Talisa between one interview and another with the Azzurri from overseas, in American, she replicated a famous shot of Marilyn Monroe in a uniform and baseball bat in a photo shoot.
Marilyn’s name evokes that of her ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, absolute myth of the New York Yankees originating from an island, Sicily, and from a city that isolates itself only in its name, Isola delle Femmine. Plays on words, but the famous champion, if he had lived today, certainly could have played in Mike Piazza’s national team. He too of Sicilian origins, like some players, and it would have made us dream because islands and dreams have a special bond in baseball. Ellis Island, for example, has welcomed the grandparents and fathers of many of these Italian American champions and citizens. Just north of Palermo, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, there is Ustica, which was the scene of a miracle, almost a sports mirage related to baseball and softball.
A community of a thousand souls who in the seventies was struck by an intuition of Bruno Beneckthen president Fibs, who hoisted the two Ustica teams, men’s and women’s, up to Serie A and also brought an athlete to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Shortly after, the dream clinging to that turtle-shaped rock vanished, but the epic thirtieth anniversary of Ustica has been told several times, magnificently in the documentary Ustica, the years of the diamond. Watching it you cheer for them and look at this tiny island and its people who emancipated themselves went into around the world and made himself known thanks to a sport. Baseball is that diamond-shaped island that you have to visit to try to understand its beauty. The 2023 World Baseball Classic is a good opportunity to do that.