It appears that the 2015 World Champion Kansas City Royals want to return to their winning ways by bringing Italy’s finest exports, Alex Liddi and Marten Gasparini, back together again. Alex Liddi, the first Italian-born and developed player to make to it to Major League Baseball (Seattle Mariners, 2011), recently re-signed with the Kansas City Royals organization after spending the last two years playing in Mexico. Marten Gasparini, who signed for $1.3 million with the Kansas City Royals in 2013, is the player insiders believe will follow in Liddi’s footsteps as the second Italian-born and developed player in the Big Leagues. Gasparini is still heralded as Europe’s top MLB prospect and is progressing every day up the ladder in Minor League Baseball. Nick Leto, Manager of Arizona Operations for the Kansas City Royals, said, “We’re very happy to be reuniting the Italians again.”
After being signed the first time by the Kansas City Royals on December 28, 2014, Liddi was named 2015 Texas League Mid-Season All-Star while playing for Double-A affiliate Northwest Arkansas but never got the opportunity to join fellow Team Italy comrade Drew Butera on the 2015 World Champion Royals. Later he signed with 2015 Mexican Baseball League Champion Tigres de Quintana Roo in 2016. Hitting a respectable .281 in 110 games played, Alex led the Tigres in doubles (28), triples (4), home runs (23), RBI (91), total bases (220) and slugging percentage (.538). He was crowned 2016 Mexican All-Star Home Run Derby Champion by launching 12 homers that cleared the outfield fences with ease.
The Mexican baseball accolades continued for Alex as he later became the first Italian to play in the Caribbean Series when joining 2016 Mexican Champion Venados de Mazatlán. Better known as Serie del Caribe or the Caribbean World Series, it is Latin America’s highest competitive baseball tournament at the club level featuring the respective champions from Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. In his final four games playing for Mexico’s Venados de Mazatlán, Liddi went 4-for-17 with a triple and a double to help the Mexicans become 2016 Caribbean Series Champion. After playing for Team Italy in the 2016 European Baseball Championship, Alex underwent left knee surgery. He rebounded triumphantly and returned to his winning form by powering Toros de Tijuana to the 2017 Mexican League Championship with 17 home runs during the regular season.
The great American author Charles Dickens once wrote: “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” The old adage is appropriate in the case of Alex Liddi and his recent re-signing by the Kansas City Royals. Leto said, “Alex made a great impression on the Royals when we had him. We have scouts that keep up with the league in Mexico. He’s someone that we checked on from time to time, and he almost came back into the organization last summer. The draw to Alex is his power, professionalism and makeup. He’s a winner. Experience isn’t everything, but Alex has played in a lot professional minor league games. He has major league experience, big time world tourney experience and foreign league experience. Alex has been through a lot of ups and downs while being around a lot of players. He knows what success and failure look like. Alex is a people person, who likes to be in the clubhouse. He is a run producer and an excellent teammate. Alex has been invited to minor league mini-camp so he’ll be in position to play in some major league spring training games.”
Alex Liddi is the face of Italian baseball. The first player from Italy to play in the Major Leagues since 1954, Liddi was honored by World Baseball Softball Federation president Riccardo Fraccari, who called him “a real ambassador of Italian baseball.” With the opportunity to spur the growth of baseball in Europe by competing at the sport’s highest level, Alex Liddi has inspired young Italian athletes like Royals’ prospect Marten Gasparini to believe that playing Major League Baseball is a reality.
Gasparini is still a work-in-progress, and according to MLB.com, the 20-year-old is the Royals 19th-ranked prospect. Adapting to his new position in the outfield from shortstop, the switch-hitting Gasparini played for Single-A affiliate Lexington in 2017. Leto, who was instrumental in the Royals’ signing of Marten, spoke confidently about Gasparini. He said, “There’s great belief in Marten’s ability. It’s a process. All players develop differently. There’s no question about Marten ability, it’s just time and reps. Switch-hitting is a really difficult skill to develop. Marten has experienced a lot of things for the first time since signing a professional contract. His intelligence, maturity, and awareness are going to allow these lessons to stick and be applied. There’s no doubt Marten will be a major league player, not a just a player, a special major league player, a championship player.”
With the support of the Kansas City Royals organization, both Alex Liddi and Marten Gasparini are destined for success. Despite a nine-year age difference between them, both players share the same intensity, tenacity and desire to play Major League Baseball. With a plethora of adoring fans from Europe, North America and south of the border cheering him on, international baseball ambassador Alex Liddi believes he is ready for his return to MLB. Marten Gasparini would like nothing more to join his mentor on the Kansas City Royals. Nick Leto would also like that very much. He said, “Who knows, maybe they’ll both get to Kansas City together…”
The proud Italian American slugger credits many influential people for his success including: his father, Lou Colabello; his Milford High School coach, Charlie Stand; his Milford American Legion manager, Rich Piergustavo; his Assumption College coach, Jamie Pinzino; and his Worcester Tornadoes manager, Rich Gedman, who garnered much respect in MLB for being a two-time American League all-star Boston Red Sox catcher. His former Indy ball skipper was always impressed with Colabello’s work ethic and tenacity in never giving up on making it to the Big Leagues. After hitting .300 in seven straight seasons and being named Independent League Player of the Year by Baseball America, Gedman wrote an impressive scouting report on his 28-year-old slugger. Like a fine Italian wine, Colabello got better with age and agent Brian Charles knew the time had come for Chris to get one more crack at making his MLB dreams come true. Charles attached Gedman’s promising scouting report to his emails in search for a Minor League deal to all 30 MLB organizations. Unfortunately, 27 of the clubs replied “No Thanks” while two others did not even offer a response. However, the Minnesota Twins were looking for a first baseman to play for Double-A New Britain. A January 2012 tryout led to a Minor League contract for Chris Colabello, who made his MLB debut for the Minnesota Twins at age 29 on May 22, 2013. 
The Italian American Baseball Family documentary makes its world premiere at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts on Saturday, January 27, 2018.
In his first chapter on the Netherlands in “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History”, Josh Chetwynd retraced the story how Bill Arce became involved in coaching abroad: Bill Arce’s entry into European baseball was mere happenstance. “I was on a plane trip with a professor from Stanford going to a convention in New York,” recalled Arce about his 1960 introduction to the European game. “At the bottom of the sports page, I noticed an item saying Holland had won the European baseball tournament. I commented that would be a great way to spend a leave from college, working with baseball players in a country like Holland.” Sometime after that he received a letter from a friend who was serving as the American consul in Amsterdam saying they were looking for a coach. Arce, who served as athletic director and head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, jumped at the opportunity in 1962.
The book “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History” elaborated on the significant impact Bill Arce had on baseball abroad: Arce would become not only a tireless teacher for the Dutch but also a master organizer. As the Dutch Baseball Hall of Famer Han Urbanus put it years later: “Bill Arce became one of the most famous and trusted coaches in our baseball history.” 
After much success coaching in Holland, international ambassador Bill Arce crossed enemy lines to help Euro rival Italy in developing its baseball program. After managing the Italian national team in the 1973 and 1975 Intercontinental Cups, he ended Italy’s 21-year drought by bringing home the 1975 European Baseball Championship title.
The Stags legend finished his college coaching career with an impressive 606-472-7 record. Prior to his passing in 2016, Bill Arce was inducted into the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic Coaches and the American Baseball Coaches Halls of Fame as well as received the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Distinguished Service Award.
Commencing its 70th season this past weekend, the 2017 Italian Baseball League (IBL) is the talk of the town in Bologna, Rimini, San Marino, Nettuno, Parma, Padova, Novara and Padule Sesto Fiorentino. Eight Italian teams from those regions are divided into two groups of four and will play games every weekend. The top squads from each division will square off in a best-of-five-game series semi-final and final competitions between August 18 and September 9, 2017. Defending champions UnipolSai Bologna, who claimed their 10th IBL title in 2016, will likely show their winning form again in 2017, while new IBL contender, Padule Sesto Fiorentino, is viewed as an outside long shot. Let’s get a closer look at each team’s roster to understand why everyone is so excited about professional baseball in Italy. 
Angel Service Nettuno Baseball City manager Alberto D’Auria will try to get his team of spirited players into the IBL playoffs for the second consecutive season. Former LA Dodgers prospect Federico Giordani joins fellow Italian teammates Ennio Retrosi and Stefano Giannetti as well as Venezuelan Ronald Bermudez and Italian American Nick Davenport in the Nettuno outfield. Shortstop and former Atlanta Braves prospect Mattia Mercuri complements the Nettuno infield along with Dominican-born Omar Luna, Argentine-born Sebastian Fontana and Renato Imperiali at first base, Andrea Sellaroli at second base, and Giuseppe Mazzanti and Leonardo Colagrossi at third base. 25-year-old American import pitcher Ethan Carnes, who pitched three years in the NY Yankees minor league system, makes Angel Service Nettuno an intriguing IBL entry. Other pitchers on the squad include Milvio Andreozzi, Matteo Modica, Yuri Morellini, Valerio Simone, Paolo Taschini, and Venzuelan Ronald Uviedo. Catchers Mario Trinci, Angelo Taurelli and Vinicio Sparagna add strength to the Nettuno roster.
Renny Duarte, who European baseball fans will recall served as the long-time pitching coach for Spain, takes over the managerial duties for Novara. Joining Duarte in the IBL is Team Spain shortstop Oscar Angulo, whose offensive excellence was key to the team’s silver medal finish in the 2016 European Baseball Championship. Led by Azzurri veterans Jairo Ramos and Yovani D’Amico, Novara has an international pitching syndicate featuring Jonathan Aristil from the Dominican Republic and Raul Ruiz from Venezuela in addition to Brent Buffa and Jeremy Castro from the USA. Other players of interest include local pitching favorites Nicolas Loardi and Pietro Paolo Cadoni plus Venezuelan catcher Luis Alvarez and Italian Dominican infielder Nathanael De Jesus. Novara should not be taken lightly as the new skipper Duarte plays to win and his players will follow his lead.
Polisportiva Padule Sesto Fiorentino manager Paolo Minozzi knows he has a big job ahead as the leader for the newest addition to the IBL. Former Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect Jesus Parra and former Chicago Cubs pitching prospect Carlos Rodriguez, a pair of strong arms from Venezuela, make their IBL debut for Padule Sesto Fiorentino. Minozzi recruited some of the best Italian pitchers available including: Alessandro Ularetti, Marco Costantini, Massimiliano “The Rocket” Geri, Filippo Gandolfi and Matthias Zotti. The catching quartet of Fabio Origlia, Davide Tomaello and Valdemaro Faticanti and Marco Valsecchi will get their fair share of time behind the plate. With first base being anchored by Emiliano Lumini and Samy Ramirez, infielders Marco Labardi, Samuele Reggioli, Manuel Ricci and Livinston Santaniello split the second baseman and shortstop duties. Cubans Yordany Alarcon and Yordany Scull stake their claim to third base and center field respectively, while Nazzareno Neri and Rojelio Maldonado round out the Padule outfield. There is no doubt the new kids on the block will experience growing pains throughout season; however, Padule Sesto Fiorentino is a welcome addition to the IBL.
The writing is on the wall just as it was in 2012 when former UC Davis Aggie pitcher Marco Grifantini and catcher Tyler LaTorre helped Team Italia capture its second consecutive European Baseball Championship by defeating a talented Kingdom of the Netherlands squad and again in 2013 when both California natives played in the World Baseball Classic. With the 2017 World Baseball Classic around the corner, two additional UC Davis alums–Toronto Blue Jays reliever Joe Biagini and free agent infielder Daniel Descalso–could potentially give manager Marco Mazzieri a boost if the Italian American players are added to the Team Italia roster. One could make a strong case for Biagini’s participation should fellow Jays bullpen paisan Jason Grilli be playing in his fourth consecutive World Baseball Classic for Team Italia. Joseph Carlo Biagini‘s Italian family bloodlines run deep with relatives in Lucca. His Italian great uncle, Carlo Biagini, was a merchant marine there. Joe’s father, Rob Biagini–who spent time playing ball in the Giants organization from 1981 to 1982–also played abroad in Italy with former teammate Chris Colabello’s father, Lou Colabello. However, it might take an executive order from new Canadian-born Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball (FIBS) president Andrea Marcon to get Biagini onboard with Team Italia in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
“Fastball John” by John D’Acquisto and Dave Jordan rivals Mike Piazza’s “Long Shot” as one of baseball’s best books of the decade. “Fastball John” features a prolific foreword by baseball historian Dan Epstein as well as references to a soundtrack of pop culture including: the Everly Brothers, the Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Carpenters, the Temptations, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Donna Summer, Nicolette Larson, Blondie, Dave Mason, Don Henley, the Pretenders and New Order. “Fastball John” D’Acquisto will be signing his new book on September 24th and 25th from 1 to 4 PM at 
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