Lasorda’s Roots Come to Fore in U.S. Victory

The U.S. baseball team struggled to beat Italy, 4-2, Friday night in front of a mostly bewildered crowd of fewer than 14,000, many of whom needed the glossary of terms provided by the scoreboard operators between innings.

“BUNT: TAPPING THE BALL A SHORT DISTANCE IS CALLED BUNTING. IT IS USUALLY DONE TO ADVANCE RUNNERS.”

Davey Johnson could learn something.

Even though it was not quite like being in Yankee Stadium in October with the other kind of bunting hanging from the upper deck, Tom Lasorda said there was no place in the world he would rather have been, managing the U.S. team in the Summer Olympics against Italy on his 73rd birthday.

Of course, Lasorda would have said the same thing if his team had been playing Sri Lanka. But you got the impression that playing against Italy really was special to him because it gave him the chance to talk about his late father, Sabbatino.

He, like many other Italians near the turn of the century, came to America from the Abruzzi region south of Rome, looking for relief from the rough winters and hard terrain. He ended up in Norristown, Pa., driving a truck for a rock quarry.

Lasorda would have gone to work for the quarry too, if he hadn’t possessed a better-than-average curveball. Sabbatino didn’t particularly care for his son making a career of baseball, but, the way he finally saw it, it beat boxing, which was young Tommy’s first choice.

Lasorda might not have gotten his love of sports from his father, but there is little question about the source of his optimism.

“My father used to come home from the quarry with his feet frostbitten,” Lasorda said. “We, the children, would rub them to warm them up while he was telling us that we were living in the greatest country in the world. I’d say, ‘But your feet are frozen.’ And he’d say, ‘What are frozen feet compared to all the happiness we’ve got?’ ”

When Italy’s fledgling baseball federation invited Lasorda a few years ago to come give a clinic for their coaches, he didn’t hesitate before accepting.

“How much money would you want?” an official asked.

“Not one dime,” Lasorda said. “Italy gave me the greatest gift any man could ever have, my father.”

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Italians, such as Sabbatino, came to America and found a lot of different ways to earn a living for their families. Most were honest. Some were not. Like the members of every other immigrant group.

Italian Americans, though, have not been able to escape the unfortunate stereotype that began with Al Capone and has persisted through “The Godfather”--parts I, II and III--and more recently “The Sopranos.”

Except on the sports pages. Lucky Luciano? Who’s he? Here, you read about DiMaggio, Lazerri, Rizutto, Gionfriddo and, of course, Lucky Lasorda. Baseball is as Italian American as pasta fagioli.

Eight players on Italy’s team here are Italian Americans, including the starting pitcher Friday night, Battista Perri of Santa Clara and Nevada Las Vegas, who yielded only two earned runs in 7 2/3 strong innings.

That is not remarkable. Remarkable is that four of the 16 Italian natives on the team are from Nettuno, which is a relatively small city. But it is the absolute capital of Italian baseball. Not surprisingly, there is an American connection there too.

On Jan. 5, 1994, Allied forces landed at the port of Anzio, not far from Nettuno. They fought the ice and mud and German shelling for five months, but, as winter turned to spring, they had liberated Italy from the fascists, and the American servicemen--those who survived, because 7,862 are buried there--had begun to teach Italian children baseball.

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Silvano Ambrosioni, the Italian manager, called Lasorda first thing Friday morning to wish Lasorda happy birthday, and they ended up lunching together.

“I told Tommy he could celebrate because he had an easy game tonight,” said Ambrosioni, who has known Lasorda since coming to Vero Beach, Fla., as a spring training observer in 1977.

Ambrosioni, however, told his players when they gathered in the clubhouse before Friday night’s game that they had a chance to make history by beating the United States.

They almost did. Not that many people back home in Italy would have cared. Or even known. Italian newspapers are in the last day of a two-day strike.

The score was tied, 2-2, in the bottom of the eighth, when Perri, a waiter when he isn’t playing baseball, tired and walked two batters. Ambrosioni called on his best reliever, Jason Simontacchi, a Northern California native who played in the Kansas City Royals’ and Pittsburgh Pirates’ organizations.

The first batter he faced, Mike Kinkade, grounded to the left of the mound. Simontacchi fielded the ball cleanly but overthrew first base, enabling both runners to score. Former Dodger pitcher Todd Williams shut down the Italians in the ninth.

Asked what the players had given Lasorda for his birthday, right fielder Ernie Young said, “Tums.”

Lasorda hugged Ambrosioni, whose team is 1-4, and said, in Italian, “Why don’t you play like that against everybody else?”

Lasorda was hoarse from yelling during the game, which might pose a problem for him during today’s game against Cuba. The United States (5-0) has clinched a berth in the medal rounds but would like to finish ahead of the once-beaten Cubans.

“To beat Italy is special,” he said. “To beat Italy on my birthday is extra special. I wanted to beat those guys so bad because I did not want them to beat the United States of America. My father was born in Italy, I was born in the U.S., and it was my country versus his.”

Lasorda finished with the media and was walking toward the clubhouse when he was interrupted by former Dodger owner Peter O’Malley, who began singing something that sounded vaguely like “Happy Birthday.” Just as not all Italians are wise guys, not all Irishmen are tenors.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.

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ON THE WEB

For coverage of this morning’s U.S.-Cuba baseball game, check https://www.latimes.com/olympics and pick up Sunday’s Times.