In his later days with the Mets, as his skills slipped with age, Mike Piazza often seemed distant and detached. Even in his heyday, he sometimes seemed more comfortable talking music with a reporter than he did chatting up teammates about baseball.
Before a game at Shea Stadium last May, Piazza seemed to have no interest in talking about hitting. But when the conversation turned to world travel, Piazza came alive, speaking animatedly and passionately about his trips to Italy.
It was no surprise, then, that Piazza, at 37, enthusiastically joined the Italian team for the World Baseball Classic. He is serious about growing the game in Italy, and his brief time here gave him a chance to embrace a new role as a spirited teacher and leader.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"The first time I saw him, he spent a couple of hours talking with me and some of the guys from Italy," said Riccardo De Santis, a 26-year-old pitcher for Grosetto of the Italian League. "He's just one of the nicest people I've ever met. He tries to help you anytime. Everything he told me, I will remember for sure."
When he goes home to Italy, De Santis will also remember Thursday's game, when he threw a sinker over the plate to a former major league home run champion. The hitter, Adrian Beltre of the Dominican Republic, punished the pitch, hitting it through the wind and over the center field fence for a three-run homer.
The Dominicans won, 8-3, clinching a berth in the second round of the tournament. Italy lost two of its three games in this round, and was eliminated on Thursday when Venezuela beat Australia, 2-0, in the night game at The Ballpark at Disney.
There are other major leaguers on the Italian team, including Frank Catalanotto of the Blue Jays and Mike Gallo of the Astros, but Piazza is by far the marquee name. He went 1 for 11 in three games, including 0 for 4 against the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
"I felt like I took a couple better swings later in the game, but obviously, the sand ran out of time on us," Piazza said. "But as I told the Italian guys, you want to play the best. I'm happy they threw their best guns at us."
For Italy, simply showing up was a victory of sorts.
"Oh, it's not very popular," said Alessandro Maestri, 21, a pitcher from Viserba di Rimini. "It's all soccer in Italy. And everybody talks about soccer and maybe some basketball there, too. But also, with this, we'll start growing."
That was the point of Piazza's participation. He explained the other night that his grandfather, Rosario Piazza, was a welder from a small town on the southwest coast of Sicily. His grandmother was from Naples, and they met on their way to the US.
"Matty and I have been talking about how wonderful it is to kind of reconnect with our ancestry, with our roots over there," Piazza said, referring to Manager Matt Galante, a former Mets coach. "The Italian players and staff have been so gracious to us and have welcomed us and made us feel comfortable. We wanted this to be an important event for us, and we think we are building a bridge here for the future."
WBC ROUNDUP
Adrian Beltre hit his third home run in two games, and Albert Pujols and Moises Alou also homered on Thursday, leading the Dominican Republic over Italy 8-3 in the first round of the World Baseball Classic.
Starter Odalis Perez won despite allowing three runs and four hits in three innings.
Pujols' two-run homer off loser Tony Fiore put the Dominican Republic (2-0) ahead for good 4-3 in the third inning. Beltre, who has eight RBIs in two games, hit a three-run shot off Italian League pitcher Riccardo De Santos in the fifth.
Moises Alou added a solo homer off Alessandro Maestri in the seventh.
Cuba 11, Netherlands 2
At San Juan, Puerto Rico, Yoandry Garlobo went 4-for-5 with three RBIs to help Cuba advance to the second round of the World Baseball Classic.
Osmany Urrutia also hit a three-run homer for Cuba (2-0), which faces Puerto Rico on Friday in a matchup of the only two undefeated teams in Group C. Puerto Rico also moved into the second round with Cuba's victory over the Netherlands.
Randall Simon had a two-run single to left in the sixth for the Netherlands (0-2).
Cuba finished the game with 16 hits.
Mexico 9, Canada 1
At Phoenix, Arizona, Jorge Cantu homered and drove in three runs and Esteban Loaiza allowed a run in five-plus innings to lead Mexico to the win.
Erubiel Durazo also had three hits and Mario Valenzuela had a solo home run for Mexico (2-1).
Canada starter Jeff Francis retired the first two batters in the first inning, then drilled Vinny Castilla in the ribs with a fastball. Consecutive doubles by Durazo, Geronimo Gil, Luis Alfonso Garcia and Miguel Ojeda made it 4-0 as Francis struggled through the 26-pitch inning.
Canada dropped to 2-1.
Venezuela 2, Australia 0
At Kissimmee, Florida, Ramon Hernandez homered and Kelvim Escobar helped pitch Venezuela into the second round of the World Baseball Classic.
The win sends Venezuela (2-1) and the Dominican Republic (2-0) to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for games beginning Sunday in a loaded group that also includes Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Led by a pitching staff sprinkled with major league aces, Venezuela allowed only three total hits in consecutive shutouts over Italy and Australia the past two nights.
Escobar allowed one hit and struck out five in 4 2-3 innings for the win.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
RSS