Baseballissimo: My Summer in the Italian Minor Leagues

Baseballissimo: My Summer in the Italian Minor Leagues

Dave Bidini
$15.95
Publication Date: March 22nd, 2005
Publisher:
McClelland & Stewart
ISBN:
9780771014628
Pages:
360

Description

In 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.

About the Author

Author and musician DAVE BIDINI is the only person to have been nominated for a Gemini, Genie, and Juno as well as CBC's Canada Reads. A founding member of Rheostatics, he has written thirteen books, including On a Cold Road, Tropic of Hockey, Around the World in 57 1/2 Gigs, and Home and Away. He is a three time National magazine award-winner, and his play, The Five Hole Stories, was staged by One Yellow Rabbit Performance Company, touring the country in 2008. His most recent book is Midnight Light: A Personal Journey to the North, and he is the publisher of the West End Phoenix community newspaper in Toronto.