Following in the footsteps of past Guests of Honor Mike Piazza, Bobby Valentine, John Franco, and Joe Girardi, baseball legend Lee Mazzilli has been selected as the 2020 IABF Guest of Honor. HIs grandfather immigrated from Bari, Italy, and worked as a piano tuner, a skill he passed on to his father, Libero, who also was a professional welterweight boxer. Lee Mazzilli described his influential father Libero as "a very low-key person who spoke louder with his eyes than his voice. He was an old-school Italian that didn’t say a lot, but you knew what was said by not saying things."
Tabloid headline writers coined Lee Mazzilli as "The Italian Stallion", and he lived up to his nickname by being selected out of Brooklyn's Lincoln High School by the New York Mets as the team's first-round pick in the 1973 MLB Amateur Draft. Lee Mazzilli played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the New York Mets, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Toronto Blue Jays from 1976-1989. Lee Mazzilli was an MLB All-Star in 1979, a year in which he led the Mets with 181 hits and 79 RBI.
After his celebrated playing career. Lee Mazzilli served as a coach for the New York Yankees from 2000-2003 before managing the Baltimore Orioles from 2004-2005 and returning to coach the New York Yankees in 2006. An IABF Ambassador and Honorary Member, Lee Mazzilli has been an avid supporter and friend of the IABF since the inception of the 501(c)(3) charity foundation committed to making a difference in elevating the quality and the growth of baseball and softball in Italy and America.
Lee Mazzilli will be recognized as 2020 IABF Guest of Honor at the fifth annual IABF Dinner and Fundraiser for , which is tentatively scheduled to be held on Thursday, December 3, 2020 (subject to change due to coronavirus restrictions). More information will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead. Forza #Italia!
by Roberto Angotti
