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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONEMarch 9, 2006Frank CatalottoMatt GalanteMike PiazzaPOOL D: ORLANDO, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we're joined by Italy. Manager Matt Galante, Frank Catalanotto in the middle and Mike Piazza on this side. Again, are there any questions in Italian? Then we'll go ahead and proceed with your thoughts on the game and on your experience here at the World Baseball Classic. COACH MATT GALANTE: First, let me say that there's nobody prouder of our team than me. I think we have proven to the people of Italy, we have proven to the Italian Federation that we can play in this caliber baseball. We certainly didn't win, but we showed that we can play with the big boys. We knew that the especially the Dominican team and the Venezuela team would be a very tough battle, but everybody was up for that. No one was afraid of it. We gave it as good an effort as we possibly could, and again I couldn't be prouder of this bunch of guys than any team I've ever been with. We have had probably as much fun here as some of the playoff teams I've been with. This has been a playoff atmosphere and we appreciate being here. Speaking for myself and I know that some of the guys have spoken to me about it. We appreciate being in this Classic and hopefully the outcome of this is still not determined for the next couple days for us. It's still a possibility. So we're hopeful, but we know that we have given it the best effort we possibly could, and I just love the way these guys played. THE MODERATOR: Frank, your thoughts on the tournament? FRANK CATALANOTTO: I had a great time. I thought it was fun. It was a great experience. When you think of Italy, you don't think of baseball. But these kids showed me that they can play some pretty good brand of baseball, and I think that in the coming years, they're going to continue to get better and we're going to see that Italy's -- that baseball is going to get stronger in Italy. And I had a great time and it was a lot of fun and it was nice to be able to play for your heritage, and I'm very proud of that. I made some friends here and overall it was a great experience for me. MIKE PIAZZA: Obviously I've been saying the whole week, everyone knows, at least, what my thoughts are. Again, we played arguably one of the probably best assembled teams in history, and played them pretty tough. And made them earn it. Made some good pitches on guys, pitchers today were real gutsy. Everyone played their hearts out. What can I say, this was an honor for me. And again, as Matty said, this is something very special. We didn't make this decision lightly, this was something very special for us to play for the country of our fathers and mothers and forefathers and foremothers and again, that's something we really take seriously. We believe baseball can continue to grow in Italy. Again, hopefully when we're still around this program will take off and one day beat the likes of Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and the United States. So that's our dream and hopefully we planted a seed and it can continue to grow, and knowing it's not going to be an overnight process. But I'm very proud to be here and I would like to thank Major League Baseball for putting on this event and I think everyone knows the response has just been overwhelming and positive. THE MODERATOR: Go ahead and open it up for questions. Just raise your hand. Q. Mike, and Mr. Galante, what is your impression of the Dominican team now that you've seen them play? They're probably the team to beat in this tournament. MIKE PIAZZA: Well, yeah, they're a very, very, talented ballclub. Solid lineup. They have a lot of speed. And they have power, too. But as you saw with the United States, any team can get beat. In order to beat this team, you really have to be on top of your game. You can't give any runs away. You can't give outs away. They have some great hitters, but anybody can have a good day. It's not always the best team that wins, it's the team that plays the best, as you saw with Canada against the United States. So I think they got a talented team, they're obviously a strong favorite from here on out, but again, as they learned a little bit today, that teams can make a name for themselves if they beat them. So that's something they're going to have to obviously concentrate on. COACH MATT GALANTE: From my standpoint you look at that lineup and it's an all-star lineup at every position. Tejada didn't even play today. So they're star studded all the way down the lineup. And it's very difficult to try to pitch around one guy when you see Moises on deck or Ortiz on deck or Beltre on deck. It's just a very difficult thing. I don't think that there's many lineups in the National League that, which is I'm more familiar with that, that are as strong as that. But along with what Mike said, a game's a game. And they seem to be the favorite, certainly in this bracket here. But anybody can still win. Q. For Mike or Frank or both, actually, how disappointing do you think it would be if the American team didn't advance and obviously given your relationships with many of the players on that team? FRANK CATALANOTTO: I think it would be disappointing. Coming into this tournament you thought that they had to be highly favored with the Dominicans. So like Mike said and Matt said, basically, you know, one game, a game of baseball, you never know what can happen. So I think it will be disappointing because you look at their lineup and they got some of the best players around. So it will be interesting to see what happens. MIKE PIAZZA: I think that again it's tough for us to comment on the American team because we haven't been in their camp and seen the energy there or whatever. But from our standpoint it shows that the teams, the Dominican, Venezuela, Canada, obviously, Mexico, they even played them tough. I mean, they want to play to win and they're serious about this event. There's a lot of pride on this event. And I'm not implying that the United States team wasn't serious, I know they're playing hard. But it just shows that teams want to play. That Dominican team out there today played with a lot of emotion. And so as Matty and Frank said, I've seen some great teams lose. It's not the team, the best team, it's the team that plays the best. Period. The team that gets good pitching, doesn't give away outs, does the little things. And in baseball, more than any other sport, David can slay Goliath, period. Q. Mike, in retrospect are you glad that you participated here with Italy, and in a program that's obviously trying to build itself as opposed to maybe being on the U. S. Team, which still has a good shot or is still considered one of the favorites to get to the finals? I mean picking the smaller fish than the bigger fish? MIKE PIAZZA: "Glad" would be an understatement. I mean, just pride and for me the fact that the way that the native Italians embraced Frank, myself and Matty and all the Italian-American players, because, again, we, you know, from the start we didn't want this to be a rubber stamp thing. As Matty will tell you they had to go back and research family trees and lineage to get some sort of legitimacy to this. So all of our parents have been traced back to roots in Italy. The fact that the Italians have embraced us so much is something for me that gives me a lot of pride and a lot of joy and we're very emotional. Anybody who is Italian, Italian-American, you know, we're very emotional. We have a lot of love. We love family and the fact that we have been embraced like a family makes us -- I mean, we all talked right now. We're going to stay in touch with this program and be on call anytime they need us to help further this program. And like I said, our dream one day is to have this team be a champion. A champion in the world class that this tournament is. COACH MATT GALANTE: Let my just say one thing along with what Mike is talking about: Every one of our Italian-American players from day one, when we spoke to them about playing really, expressed a desire to be here, and everyone that's here really wants to be here. They have told me this on the phone before we started this thing. But as we got through, the last seven, eight days from camp through now, they have continued to tell me how much pleasure they have had coming here representing Italy and being in this tournament. Q. We know you've enjoyed trips back to Italy, Mike, have you thought at all about when your playing career does come to an end, going over there and getting involved in teaching the sport over there to kids or younger players? MIKE PIAZZA: Well, I've said on record before I'll be willing to sacrifice to go to Italy on vacation and eat al dente pasta and truffles and make cappuccino. I'll sacrifice that. I will go through that to further the Italian baseball program. As I'm sure we all will. So, yeah, we made friendships here. We have connected with these beautiful Italian players and coaches. They came in and they're very proud, and we're proud to have played for them. So again, we are all going to go over there and do whatever we can. As I said, it's the first step. Baseball has a little bit of a foothold there, but now we want to elevate that and make it more of a sport business than just a casual sport over there. We want it to be serious. But it's not going to be an easy process, it's always going to take time. Q. Mike, just in retrospect did you feel like timing-wise you were ready for this tournament? How did you feel about the play the last few days? MIKE PIAZZA: Well, again, I have no excuses. I wish I would have played better. But last night, we faced Freddy Garcia in mid-season form and Silva, and today, obviously, Odalis. I felt like I took a couple better swings later in the game, but obviously the sand ran out of time on us. But as I've said, and I told the Italian guys, and Frankie knows this, I mean, you want to play the best. I'm happy that they threw their best guns at us. I'm happy that they threw Freddy last night and all their talent, Venezuela and Dominican pitchers today as well. So that's what I've always loved to do in my whole career. If you want to face the best, if you don't want to face the best in the game, then you shouldn't be playing the game. So as Frankie swung the bat very well today, obviously he was ready and he was on time, and hopefully we'll be ready for the season as well. COACH MATT GALANTE: We played three straight days in this tournament. And normally at this point in spring training most of these guys are not going to be playing three days in a row, let alone nine innings. And we got here today and I asked a whole bunch of players if they were ready to play, and not one of them asked me to come out of the lineup. They all wanted to get in that game, all wanted to play the game, and I know that at this time on spring training on March 9th, normally the players would be playing three, five innings. Two at-bats at best. And none of these guys asked to get out. THE MODERATOR: Thank you guys very much.
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