The Super October for Club Italia LA28
FIBS President Andrea Marcon has been on a mission since it was announced that baseball and softball were part of the Olympic program for Los Angeles in 2028. Having just returned from America after being a special guest of the Italian Consulate in New York for the conference ‘Sport Made in Italy: a growth tool’, President Marcon continues to develop his master plan by weaving alliances and relationships aimed at the technical growth of Italian athletes and the movement at large.
He said, “I would like to start from the collaboration with Steel Sports which by its nature is born with a long-term scope. On the one hand, there is the spread of an approach to teaching our disciplines that requires time to be illustrated and understood by coaches, on the other, the awareness that applying a method to athletes can bear fruit with the right patience and continuity. After the clinics held in Italy by Steel Sports coaches, Mike Piazza and Becky Blatnick were guests of honor at Steel Sports Lasorda Legacy Park in New York on July 1st. Then Gianguido Poma and Michele Gerali, together with four players (Andrea Destro of Rovigo, Alessandro Garavaglia of Milano 1946, Raffaele Geminiani of Godo and Federico Tamburini of San Lazzaro, ed.) were an integral part of the Under 16 National Camp from July 29th to August 2nd at Rowan University in New Jersey. Steel Sports will then return to Italy for the Youth Final Four on the last weekend of September, which sees the organization led by Martin Brown as Title Sponsor, and there they will be available to Italian coaches for personalized meetings, preceded by the meeting on Friday, September 27th at Parma and Congressi. Added to this is the partnership with Blast Motion, the swing analysis technology developed by Pier Piancastelli, which is finally available at special prices in Italy and which we are presenting to the movement through targeted tests with the aim of spreading one of the most advanced methodologies at the service of coaches.”
However, those with Steel Spots and Blast Motion are not the only partnerships activated in recent times: “In fact – continued Marcon – in June agreements of enormous importance for the growth of our athletes were formalized. Thanks to the work of our ambassador for Canada Flavio Volpe, I signed an agreement that establishes the annual cadence of the Italia-Canada Baseball Softball Week when every year an Italian baseball or softball team will be able to carry out a week of preparation and games in Canada completely sponsored by the CIBPA, the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association, and the associated Foundation. After the U18 National Baseball Team in 2022, the Italia Softball U18 girls carried out preparation for this year's World Cup in Toronto.”
On the baseball front, October is expected to be a very intense one. “Yes, by coordinating with Mike (Piazza) the availability and enthusiasm generated by the last Classic and the desire to contribute to the growth of our athletes shown by many coaches, athletes and organizations in the United States, we have created what we could call the ‘widespread Instructional League’ that realizes the basic objective, that is, to give the opportunity to play quality innings and extend the season as much as possible to those who will presumably be called to defend the colors of Italy in the next Olympic qualification.”
After the Club Italia LA28 baptism in Grosseto in March and the participation in Haarlem Baseball Week the first high-level autumn appointment arrives. Gianguido Poma, coordinator of the technical development of the Azzurri, is working intensely on it: “The Club Italia LA28 is an extended and open group of players that includes the youngest talents, starting from the European Champions of the U18, to the U23, to those who are having college or professional experiences, up to the Azzurri ‘senators’, who are called to put themselves at the service of the team. We are dedicating this program to them, which is definitely challenging, for the Federation and for them, with the aim of putting them in front of challenges that will make them improve.”
“We have then signed a structured agreement with the Kansas City Royals, who strongly want to be the first team to play in the future facility in Rome,” continued Andrea Marcon, “and, to start, they will host a camp for 20 pitchers and catchers from October 8 to 15 in their Spring Training facility in Surprise, near Phoenix. I would like to publicly thank Nick Leto, Director of Minor League Operations, a true friend of the Italian baseball, and former Italian Brian Sweeney, pitching coach of the Royals’ first team, for this opportunity. Under the guidance of Blake Butera, who strongly wanted to be present for the entire period, our boys and pitching coaches will be able to work daily in a structure of excellence with Felice Cundari, AA pitching coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, historic member of the first Club Italia (the team that won the European Championship in 1983, qualifying for the Los Angeles ’84 tournament, ed.) who has made himself available to the Italian pitching development program. The group will train and play games together with several of the technicians and players of the Classic 2023 who will already be working in the area at their franchises. The entire Italian-American baseball community has become active for this.”
Then there is the series of games with the University of Tampa in Florida. “As the entire Italian staff maintains, starting with Mike Piazza and Gianguido Poma – confirmed Marcon – you only improve by playing at a high level, so, seizing the offer of the Spartans manager Joe Urso (National Coach of the Year 2024 of the NCAA Division II, ed.), the players and coaches involved in Surprise, will move to Tampa, where the group of position players from Italy and those who are involved in the United States will converge to work together and play games against the strongest and most organized team in the second NCAA division. Obviously the event also opens an extremely interesting door in the FIBS College Pipeline perspective for our guys, since it will be an opportunity to show themselves at work in front of many scouts and university coaches.”
The entire college has worked to involve the Tampa community for this ‘Club Italia College Series’ which represents a highly prestigious event, entrusting communication and organization to Robert Pennino and Terrier Production.
National Baseball Hall of Famer and Team Italy manager Mike Piazza said, “There is a lot of attention out there towards our program. In the United States, in Canada, in South America, wherever there is an Italian community where baseball is important, but also in other countries that have little to do with our culture, but that love Italy, the desire to know, to support is very high. We experience it firsthand every day. As I have said many times, regardless of the Classic or the qualification for the Olympics, which remain our primary short-term objective, the vision is to create a path, an Italian school of baseball and softball that characterizes us and consolidates over time, to have more and more athletes able to compete at an international level with the best. The new Liddi's, the new Aldegheri's. To do this, we must use every form of help possible. There are many professionals who have Italy in their hearts and not just in their last names. Together with them we are creating this path. It is undoubtedly a challenging path that awaits us, but I believe that we are facing it with the best traveling companions.”
Marco Landi
(Photo of Team Italy at a pre-Haarlem Baseball Week 2024 practice in Reggio Emilia by PhBass)
