Nettuno, Italy, to Host Baseball World Cup 2009 Finals in September

Great Italian-Americans have made their mark in Major League Baseball over the years, from Tony Lazzeri and the DiMaggio brothers decades ago to more recent stars like Mike Piazza and Jason Giambi.  That connection to the sport has special meaning as the Lazio coastal city of Nettuno has been chosen to host the Baseball World Cup 2009 Finals, September 22-27.

At a Monday reception and press event at Yankee Stadium, across the street from where many of those great Italian-American stars made their marks on the sport, a delegation of Italian baseball dignitaries, including the mayor of Nettuno and Tourism Directors of the Lazio Region and of Rome, discussed the efforts across the region and the country to help make the event a success, not just for baseball but for tourism as well.

“Many people know of Rome, but not as many are familiar with Nettuno and the history there,” said Patrizia Prestipino, Tourism Minister of Rome, which is about 40 miles north of Nettuno.  “It is a place where everyone plays baseball from when they are small children, and there is a magnificent stadium there.”

The history of which Prestipino speaks has important connections to baseball, dating back to World War II.  On January 22, 1944, Nettuno and nearby Anzio were the sites of the landing of 36,000 troops, liberating the region, but at a huge cost of lives – nearly 8,000 men who died in either of those landings or in the 1943 Sicily campaign – that is memorialized in the military cemeteries in the area.  The troops there taught baseball to the locals, and it remained strong after they left.

The Italian Baseball Federation has introduced the “All to be Safe” theme for the tournament, in remembrance of the battles and to accentuate that new battles on the same grounds will be fought with bats and balls by baseball players rather than guns and grenades by soldiers.  The connection was not lost on Alessio Chiavetta, mayor of Nettuno, as he helped introduce the campaign Monday to a largely American and Italian group.  The presentation included a soon-to-be-released 90-second video depicting baseball players as “soldiers” as they “invade” the shores, dramatizing a message of peace and safety instead of war.

“The players landing in the same fields and shores as in World War II is very significant,” said Chiavetta.  “It shows the relationship between Nettuno and the U.S.A., and how baseball came to Nettuno.  It signifies the freedom of Rome and the appreciation Italians feel towards the U.S.A.”

The Italian Baseball League (IBL) was founded in Milan in 1948.  Since then, the sport has had a steady rise in membership across the country, and now more than 26,000 play in organized leagues.

The Stadio Borghese in Nettuno will host the semifinals and finals of the Baseball World Cup, which for the first time will be played in different European countries in the early rounds.   Temporary seats will be added to Italy’s premier baseball facility to accommodate 12,000 fans.  Twenty two national teams will take part in all, including the U.S.A., Cuba, Russia, China and Taiwan, with hundreds of athletes from across the world participating, with eight teams advancing to the final round in Italy.

For Italian Baseball Federation President Riccardo Fraccari, the Baseball World Cup highlights the growth of the sport across Italy.

“We now play baseball in 16 different cities in 10 regions, involving the whole country, from Torino all the way to Sicily,” said Fraccari.  “We have 100 fields with lights, we’ve started a pro league, we’ve worked with Major League Baseball for clinics and youth baseball.  Other than soccer, no other sport is played in so many areas of Italy.  There is no other sport here that could get such a combined effort of Tourism ministers, mayors and everyone else.”

Fraccari hopes the event can achieve two larger goals for baseball in Italy.  One is to prepare the country for future Italian Baseball League events.  He feels that the recent construction of many fields which can handle top-level play has been a significant step in making these kinds of events possible.  Second, Fraccari, who watches as many Major League games as he can, since the national Italian television network RAI shows only one game in Italy per week, sees baseball as being at a crossroads in Italy, and that the World Cup can help serve as a guide to the direction the sport may take there.

Indeed, the Lazio Region and Rome are conducting the kind of foreign tourism campaign that one might see in Italy for international soccer tournaments.

“Playing the World Cup in Nettuno means playing in the metropolitan area of Rome,” added Prestipino.  “There is the possibility to go to Rome for vacation, and to go to Nettuno by train or bus to support your teams and see the other teams play baseball.”

“The weather in Rome at the end of September is beautiful,” said Claudio Mancini, Tourism Director for the Lazio Region.

On a global scale, the Baseball World Cup takes on extra importance in the context of the quest to reinstate the sport into the Olympic Games in 2016.

“We are excited that the World Cup is being held throughout Europe and that the finals will be in Nettuno,” said Dr. Harvey Schiller, President of the International Baseball Federation. “A majority of the IOC committee members are from Europe, so a successful tournament would mean a great deal to us.”

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