Team Italy manager Mike Piazza visits Candiolo Institute prior to tribute to NYC heroes at Citi Field on September 11

Team Italy manager Mike Piazza visits Candiolo Institute prior to tribute to NYC heroes at Citi Field on September 11
09/09/2021
Azzurri manager Mike Piazza visited the Candiolo Institute, European Baseball Championship Charity Partner, and met Candiolo President Allegra Agnelli prior to boarding his flight to New York for the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers at Citi Field

Team Italy manager Mike Piazza represented the senior national baseball squad at the Candiolo Foundation for Cancer Research in Piemonte on Thursday, September 9, 2021 before holding practice with the Azzurri squad in preparation for the European Baseball Championship, which takes place on the diamonds of Torino, Settimo Torinese and Avigliana from September 12-19, 2021. The National Baseball Hall of Famer learned about the groundbreaking work the Candiolo Institute has done in fighting cancer and supporting the victims and their families in their battle against the disease.

President Allegra Agnelli thanked Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball (FIBS) for selecting the Candiolo Institute as the official European Baseball Championship Charity Partner and contributing to the promotion of the Candiolo Foundation’s mission. She said, “We are a continuously growing construction site, which started 35 years ago with only private contributions.  Now it is the will of the people that we carry out our work in small steps without a cent of debt. We are not a big company, but we pursue excellence in everything we do, namely the care of the patient and the research to defeat cancer, all carried out with the indispensable humanity by all our operators. The objectives we are focusing on in this period are, for example, hospice, or the reception for those who can no longer be treated at home, and liquid biopsy, an analysis that discovers tumors essentially through the blood.”

Professor Anna Sapino, Scientific Director of the Candiolo Institute, was also on hand to illustrate illustrating the synergy between assistance and research makes the cutting-edge work of the Candiolo extremely effective and bridges the gap between the Institute and the Foundation. Mike Piazza thanked everyone at Candiolo for the opportunity to partner so that the game of baseball can become a tool for disseminating social responsibility programs, especially towards young people, who must be encouraged to take care of their health since prevention guarantees a healthy and peaceful future. In fact, Team Italy will take the field against Belgium in the European Baseball Championship on Monday, September 13, 2021 wearing the t-shirt with the hashtag #SOSTIENICANDIOLO (translated to #SUPPORTCANDIOLO).

It will be an emotional time for Mike Piazza as he participates in the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the horrific attacks on the Twin Towers at Citi Field on September 11, 2021. He and members of the New York Mets family will reminisce about the first game after 9/11 when his home run in the eighth inning was the difference in defeating the Atlanta Braves and giving New Yorkers a sign of hope as well as something to cheer about. 

The game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees at Citi Field is highly anticipated. Mike Piazza said, "It will be an opportunity to remember and huddle together once again. It was planned well before the pandemic. It is a commitment that I have made and must be respected, which FIBS, the team and my staff understand and share. The work of the last few weeks has been excellent. The team and the coaches who have built it over the past few months know perfectly well how to proceed and can carry it forward. It's their team as well as mine." The Team Italy skipper will be back in time for the second European Baseball Championship game against Belgium on Monday, September 13, 2021. Forza #Italia! #PerBill

by Roberto Angotti

EUROPEAN BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP NEWS