by Pim van Nes
“Rick has the same name and also the same uniform number as I have!”, Riccardo told his parents. “Prince said Great Job to me and then signed my cap”, according to Giacomo showing his trophy to his friends. “To me Roger has explained the outfielders ballet after the third out in the last inning!”exclaimed Mattia last Saturday after the field clinic by the Big Leaguers in Parma, Italy.
For Mattia, Giacomo and Riccardo and for the other 399 boys and girls this 12 November 2011 will be unforgettable for ever. For the first time ever Major League players came to Italy and for the second time to Europe. The kids will remember for ever that they shared the beautiful diamond in Parma with seven champions of their favorite sport, who had realized their dream to reach MLB.
“The protagonists are the boys, we are the guests”, underligns Rick van den Hurk, the man behind the idea and promoter of the initiative, while he guides with an endless patience and sweetness the group of pitchers in an exercise which is almost a dance. His colleagues, campaigning for the Olympic return of baseball, were busy each with a group out of the hundreds of boys who had eyes only for them.
Massimo Fochi is former player of local top club Parma Angels (pitcher and infielder) and presently vice chairman of Italian federation FIBS: “Having four hundred kids from across Italy and their curious parents around is a great responsibility. Additionally, due to the big leaguers faced with a train delay between Rome and Parma we had to re-schedule some activities to-day.”
Over 220 kids came from Emilia Romagna, the province of Parma, but the other traveled all the way from nearby Italian areas: Liguria, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, Marche and Tuscany (total 132) and also from distant Trentino, Friuli, Abbruzzo and Lazio (total 44). Longest trips were made by kids and parents from Calabria, the Italian islands Sicily and Sardinia and even from France.
The November 400 men roster in Parma consisted of 125 pitchers, 70 catchers, 153 infielders and 54 outfielders. In ages the main group was with those of 13 years (72), followed by those of 11 years (66), 14 years (60), 12 years (51), 15 years (40), 10 years (34), 9 years (33), 8 years (29), 16 years (12) and 5 below the age of 8. For the record: youngest big leaguers fan was 3 years old.
“Certainly”, Fochi continued, “everything went smoothly thanks to a group of volunteers who did a wonderful job to-day and I want to thanks them all publicly. Rick van den Hurk told me that this stage of the Tour was fantastic. He wants to come back, because our baseball and our country deserve a more accurate visit than this time after the delay in transport from Rome.”
(Extracts in English from Italian article by Marco Landi on www.fibs.it)
