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Baseball isn’t always about winning, it’s about moments like this
When Weston Mazey returned to the baseball field four months after a life-threatening head injury, the opposition gave him a touching welcome back.
SPORTSKIND, USA Today
During last MLB season, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. set up a makeshift fruit cocktail bar in the dugout to keep cool.
His concession of choice might have just been one-upped by Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic.
Mike Piazza’s team has an espresso machine in its dugout.
Twitter account Growing Up Italian captured an image of the team’s Nespresso machine during a broadcast of Italy’s game against Chinese Taipai on Friday. The setup is complete with cups, sugar packets and stir sticks.
“Coffee is like water in Italy,” the head coach said, according to MLB reporter Matt Monagan.
There’s another quirk that’s fueling Team Italy: the players’ mustaches.
Piazza decided to grow his back from his playing days. The Hall of Famer spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball, mostly for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets before helming the national team.
Outfielder Dominic Fletcher, who plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks, said that general manager Gianmarco Faraone was also an inspiration for the team to hop on the trend.
“(He) has been rocking a ‘stache for years,” Fletcher told MLB.com. “So I kind of hopped on board. I think (I grew it) the first day we got here, and then slowly, one by one, guys jumped on and it just turned into a thing.”
Italy won its first game of the tournament against Cuba on Thursday before losing its next two games. Italy will fuel up to face the Netherlands in a key Pool A game on Sunday.
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