The Pecan Park Eagle

Sunny Italy Has Given Us Some Baseball Players.

My All Italian-American Baseball Team / by (Predominant Big League Club)

Pitcher: Mike Mussina (Yankees)

Catcher: Ernie Lombardi (Reds)

First Base: Mike Piazza (Dodgers/Mets)

Second Base: Tony Lazzeri (Yankees)

Third Base: Ron Santo (Cubs)

Shortstop: Phil Rizzuto (Yankees)

Left Field: Yogi Berra (Yankees)

Center Field: Joe DiMaggio (Yankees)

Right Field: Dom DiMaggio (Red Sox)

Their famous name numbers are not voluminous on baseball’s wall of history, but the significant contributions of the few Italian-Americans who have made it to the Hall of Fame level are quite remarkable. My own Italian-American All Star club had to be slightly gerrymandered for the sake of getting all the best bats in the starting lineup. Case in Point: Yogi Berra. Yogi was undoubtedly the best catcher of the group, but I had to put him in left field to make room for the mobility-limited big bat of Ernie Lombardi, whom I then put behind the plate. Yogi played some left field late in his career. Remember? Yogi got to left field in 1960 just in time to have the closest look at Mazeroski’s Series-winning home run leave the yard in Game Seven at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

I put another catcher, Mike Piazza, at first base to take advantage of his power. I could have picked a few more natural fielding candidates from guys like Zeke Bonura, Joe Pepitone, Wayne Belardi, or Jason Giambi, but none of these guys, not even Giambi, had the pop in his bat that Piazza possessed.

Third Base was only tough from the standpoint that I wasn’t really sure of Ron Santo’s ethnicity until I Googled the issue. Once confirmed, Ron was a no-brainer. Regardless of ethnicity, Santo was of the best “least honored” third basemen in the history of the game.

The outfield was easy enough with Joe D. available for center field and brother Dom another great defensive, good hitting choice to move over from his routine center field pasture to cover right. We could have fielded an All-DiMaggio Outfield by placing older brother Vince in left, but he couldn’t hit all that well and we needed the spot for Yogi.

The quality here helped make up for the limited quantity of Italian-American candidates.

Five of the guys, Lombardi, Lazzeri, Rizzuto, Berra, and Joe DiMaggio are all members of the Hall of the Fame – and Santo should be as the so-far unrecognized sixth HOF man on that list.  Five of the guys also, and including Mussina, Lazzeri, Rizzuto, Berra, and Joe DiMaggio, were all Yankees during their playing days. Mussina is the only one from that group that even played significant time with another club prior to his Yankees best-years career. The other four guys were career Yankees. Yogi got into four games with the Mets in 1965 during his management of that club, but that slight taint on his Yankees purity hardly counts.

Why so many of the great Italians played for the Yankees, we really can’t say. All we can know for sure is that the Yankees loved Italians and they gobbled them up back in the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s.

I may have missed someone, but I cannot imagine now who it may have been. If it were do-able, I would certainly  be willing to play your club of nine other Italian-Americans with my guys for a Friday Night DeLuxe Valian’s Pizza anytime, anywhere you want.

How about Mason Park Field on 75th in Houston’s East End? That one worked for me back in the early 1950’s and probably still would.