My Italian Heritage: Toronto and Growing Up in the Game

In Part 1 of this series, I explored the origins of baseball in Italy, from the early exhibitions in the late 1800s to the formation of organized baseball after World War II and the growth of the sport across the country.

Read Part 1: Italian Baseball — Where It Started and How It Found Its Footing

But the story of Italian baseball is not only about Italy. For many families, including mine, the connection to the game happened thousands of kilometres away. For me, that story unfolded in Toronto.

I grew up in Toronto in an Italian family and that means you grow up understanding culture before you fully understand the world. You learn it at the dinner table. You hear it in the language, in the stories and in the pride your parents carry even when they are building a life far from where they started.

My parents came from Italy, and like many Italian immigrants, baseball was not the game they grew up with. My father didn’t really know baseball. He didn’t grow up playing it or studying the rules the way many North American families did. But he did know some of the names. Certain players had become so famous that even people who didn’t follow the game closely recognized them, especially players with Italian roots.

One of those names was Joe DiMaggio.

DiMaggio wasn’t just a great player; he became a symbol of success for many Italian families in North America. For immigrants who had come to a new country looking for opportunity, seeing an Italian name become one of the most recognizable names in baseball meant something. It represented pride, possibility and the idea that people from your background could rise to the very top.

Those names travelled through communities and families. Even if my father didn’t know every detail about the game, he knew that DiMaggio was someone special.

Growing up, that connection stayed with me.

Living in Toronto also meant baseball was everywhere during the summer months. The city is one of the most multicultural places in the world and the baseball field reflected that. On any given team you could have Italian kids, Portuguese kids, Caribbean kids, Greek kids and Canadian kids all playing together. Different backgrounds, different languages at home, but one game connecting everyone.

And then something happened that changed baseball in Canada forever.

The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993. For kids growing up in Toronto, those championships made baseball feel larger than life. The entire city was watching and suddenly the dream of playing baseball didn’t feel so distant anymore. But while the Blue Jays were my hometown team, there was another team that always captured my attention as well.

The New York Yankees.

Part of that connection came from the deep Italian roots that helped shape the history of that organization and the game itself. Players like Joe DiMaggio carried Italian names that families across North America recognized. Seeing those names succeed at the highest level created a sense of pride in many Italian households, including ours. For a young Italian kid growing up in Toronto, those connections mattered. They made the game feel personal. They made baseball feel like something that belonged to our community too.

I didn’t start playing baseball until I was twelve years old, but once I stepped onto the field the game quickly became a central part of my life. It eventually opened doors that I never imagined, including opportunities to play college baseball in the United States.

But through all of it, my Italian roots stayed with me.

Italian culture values passion. It values pride. It values loyalty to family and respect for the opportunities you’re given. Those same values exist inside baseball. You play hard. You represent your family when you step onto the field. You carry yourself a certain way because you understand that your name means something.

Growing up in Toronto, baseball became the place where my Canadian experience and my Italian heritage came together. And looking back now, I realize that connection shaped not only the player I became, but also the coach I would eventually become as well.

Looking Ahead

As I grew older and my involvement in baseball expanded from player to coach, I began to appreciate the global reach of the game even more. Baseball was never just an American sport. It had grown roots in places all over the world, including Italy.

One of the proudest moments of my playing career came in 2003, when I had the opportunity to represent Canada at the World Baseball Challenge in Grand Forks, British Columbia. Wearing the Canadian uniform and competing against players from around the world was something I will never forget. That experience gave me a deeper appreciation for international baseball and how the sport connects cultures and countries.

For me personally, it also represented something bigger. I was representing Canada, the country where I was born and raised, while carrying the pride of my Italian heritage with me at the same time.

That balance has always meant a lot to me.

I love Italy for the culture, family roots and traditions that shaped my upbringing. I love Canada for the opportunities it gave me, including the chance to play the game that became such an important part of my life.

Baseball allowed those two worlds to meet.

And in many ways, the story of Italian baseball reflects that same idea. What started decades earlier with American soldiers playing catch on Italian soil eventually evolved into organized leagues, youth development programs and a national team capable of competing internationally.