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Pitcher from Italy finds success with Clearwater Threshers
Sean Barie reports
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Growing up, if someone referenced a ''pitch'' to Samuel Aldegheri, they most likely weren't talking about the type of pitching the 21-year-old lefty is used to.
"It's not really popular. Not a lot of people know baseball in Italy," Aldegheri said.
Born and raised in Verona, Italy, Aldegheri was surrounded by a soccer-crazed country.
There, football was life, but Aldegheri decided to dedicate his to America's pastime.
"I had a baseball field five minutes from my home, so it was really close," Aldegheri remembered. "From there, I started looking on the internet, watching MLB games and all that."
Aldegheri warming up with other Phillies prospects.
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Following his older brothers' footsteps, Aldergheri picked up a baseball and glove at a young age and never looked back.
But when the southpaw from northern Italy started getting contacted by MLB scouts as a teenager, he knew there might be a future in baseball.
"It was weird at first," Aldegheri said. "It's not really common to get contacted from a scout from America in Italy. I was like, 'Is this true? Is this real?'"
It was, and eventually, Aldegheri signed with the Philadelphia Phillies organization as a teenager.
"From there, I said, 'Okay. I've got a chance,'" Aldegheri remembered thinking to himself.
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However, that doesn't mean chasing his all-American dream was easy.
Aldergheri walking off the mound after recording an inning ending strikeout.
"When I first got here, I was scared," Aldegheri said. "I remember my dad saying that if I wanted, he could bring me home and just give up. But I'm not that guy."
Aldegheri decided to stick it out and is now finding success with the Clearwater Threshers even after a pandemic, and injuries delayed his progress.
"I just want to dominate every day," Aldegheri said.
And one day, the pitcher from Verona hopes to become just the second player from his hometown to crack a big league roster.
"I'm doing everything possible to do it and to make it," Aldegheri said.
Along the way, he wouldn't mind changing peoples' perception of Italian baseball as he and others from Italy live out their all-American dream.