Alessandro Maestri and his historic 2014 season

Resilience, the ability to respond positively to the difficulties that are presented. During the career of Alessandro Maestri, this right-handed hurler from Italy has shown on a number of occasions that his character is one of resilience both on and off the ball field. In 2011, after being released by the Chicago Cubs organization the righty was presented with an opportunity that led him to to Australian where he played with the Brisbane Bandits of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), an opportunity that opened the door to Japan, where now after three seasons under his belt, (up and down between the minors and majors) Maestri can add to the firsts that he is not only experiencing as a single person, but also as a representative of an entire nation. Alessandro Maestri has now officially become the first Italian born ballplayer to participate in the Nippon Baseball League postseason, after making the playoff roster with the organization that he plays for, the Oriz Buffaloes.

Although Maestri's club didn't servive past the first round of the 2014 NBL playoffs (eliminated in a decisive game three on a walk-off extra inning homer by Nakata of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters), it did turn out to be a positive experience for him. Maestri appearied in game one of the series, a game that was eventually dropped by the Buffaloes, however the righty showed his resilience when he was able to work around a bases loaded situation in the 8th to strand all three runners on the sacs with his team trailing by just three runs on the scoreboard (6-3). 

All in all it was a difficult up and down 2014 campaign for Maestri, a season that entailed back-and-forth trips from the minors to the majors for a number of different reason. However in the end the name Maestri is a name well know to the Buffaloe fans, and according to the local press it's also a name that they should be seeing once again on the diamond in 2015.