Baseballissimo Review

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Baseballissimo ReviewBaseballissimo is one of those books you probably won't find at the bookstore, mainly because they wouldn't know what section to put it in. I only found it because of amazon's amazing "recommended for you" feature. It put together the fact that I enjoy memoirs, baseball, and Italy, and found a book about all three.
Baseballissimo is by Dave Bidini, a Canadian author. A surprisingly high percentage of the offbeat and intriguing books that I come across are by Canadian authors. I don't know how it works exactly, or what the income tax rate must be in Canada to subsidize such a program, but apparently the government actually pays authors to write books. They paid Bidini to take his family (wife, toddler, and infant) to Nettuno, Italy for six months so he could follow the local baseball team, the Peones for a season, and write a book about it. He says his choice was between baseball in Italy or wrestling in Newfoundland. Doesn't sound like a tough choice to me.
Bidini sits in the dugout and sometimes warms up with the Peones, an amateur team in one of the several Italian leagues. He gets to know the players and gives them all nicknames. He finds out how baseball came to be so popular in Italy (American GIs introduced it during World War II). He and his family become temporary residents of the small town of Nettuno near Anzio and about an hour's drive south of Rome. Bidini gets in touch with his roots - his grandparents were immigrants to Canada from Italy. He reminisces about how baseball has always been a part of his life. And he follows the Peones from pre-season training to the exciting season finish against Palermo.
Sometimes you get the feeling that Bidini cares more about the game than the Peones do. They're a good team, but it's just amateur baseball, and they all have day jobs and girlfriends and lives. Bidini's pushing forty and the manager, although still fit and athletic, is in his sixties. The players, mostly in their twenties and in a country where soccer is king, are sometimes late for practice, or are more interested in the fantastic pre-game snacks they've brought. Since this is Italy, there are no hot dogs and sunflower seeds. It's homemade pizza, smooth espresso, and sugary pastries. Sure, the players want to win, and they go all out when they play. But to them it's just a game. Little do they know.
Baseballissimo OverviewIn the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced by the American GIs who liberated the region. Bidini wanted to spend time in a town where everyone is as nuts about the game as he is, and in Nettuno, they love the game so much that they hand out baseball gloves and bats to children taking their first communion.For six months Bidini followed the fortunes of the Serie B Peones, Nettunese to the core. At the same time he was also learning about his own heritage, having spent his youth vigorously ignoring his Italianness. The result of his summer in Italy is vintage Bidini: a funny, perceptive, and engrossing book that takes readers far beyond the professional sport to the game that people around the world love to play.From the Hardcover edition.

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