Players for World Baseball Classic announced!

[Swiss]

This thing is such a joke! Piazza and Catalanotto on Italy? Anyway It'll still be fun to watch and root on Canada.

They are following Olympic rules. A person who can get any form of citizenship at that country CAN PLAY for that country. It's the same in the Olympics.

It still is ridiculous. How can a guy who was born and grew up in Pennsylvania play for Italy. Has he even ever been to Italy? This is a joke!

The American mentality about citizenships is too different to the ones in another countries. When you are an American citizen (by born or by adoption) by law, you can't theorically keep a foreign citizenship.

But in some countries like Switzerland, someone can keep a foreign citizenship and the Swiss law can recognize it only if the country had a citizenship treaty with very few countries like France, Canada and Argentina: a Swiss can be legally a Swiss-Canadian or Swiss-Argentinean.

But... if the Swiss adopts the English citizenship, he/she will be a Swiss or an English depending of the advantages of using one of those citizenships in some places.

[jkrdevil]

This thing is such a joke! Piazza and Catalanotto on Italy? Anyway It'll still be fun to watch and root on Canada.

They are following Olympic rules. A person who can get any form of citizenship at that country CAN PLAY for that country. It's the same in the Olympics.

It still is ridiculous. How can a guy who was born and grew up in Pennsylvania play for Italy. Has he even ever been to Italy? This is a joke!

The American mentality about citizenships is too different to the ones in another countries. When you are an American citizen (by born or by adoption) by law, you can't theorically keep a foreign citizenship.

But in some countries like Switzerland, someone can keep a foreign citizenship and the Swiss law can recognize it only if the country had a citizenship treaty with very few countries like France, Canada and Argentina: a Swiss can be legally a Swiss-Canadian or Swiss-Argentinean.

But... if the Swiss adopts the English citizenship, he/she will be a Swiss or an English depending of the advantages of using one of those citizenships in some places.

That may be true however (correct me if I'm worng), in order to gain citizenship there you must have lived in that country for a certain amount of time. In the case of Mike Piazza he's never lived in Italy, he's lived his entire life in the USA.

[Swiss]

That may be true however (correct me if I'm worng), in order to gain citizenship there you must have lived in that country for a certain amount of time. In the case of Mike Piazza he's never lived in Italy, he's lived his entire life in the USA.

No, you aren't wrong, my friend, but I'll tell you some more things.

Other very different foreign view about citizenship is the Argentinean one. An Argentinean can keep a double citizenship without any trouble with the law. The Argentinean people takes it with natural mood because the European immigration was very strong in that country and European traditions are even stronger among its inhabitants.

Between one half and one third of the Argentinean population has European ancestry so potentially has rights to an European citizenship.

The European country that keeps deep roots in Argentina is Italy. It's too common to find Italian surnames in all the Southamerican country. Well, the Italian citizenship law is like the Spanish law, Swiss law, French law, etc... it's based in juris sanguis (something inherited by blood).

It isn't necessary to reside in Italy to obtain the Italian citizenship.

The Piazza stuff is equal to the millions of Argentinean cases.

[Korkie]

That Canadian team has a pretty good roster. I knew of some Canadian baseball talent, but that team is pretty promising. Obviously though the US, Dom. Rep. and Japan have to be the overwhelming favorites. It should be a fun event, but I just hope this doesn't wear the players down as the regular season winds down and the playoffs start.

As far as Piazza goes, 1 of the eligibility requirements was that one of the players parents was born in that country, so maybe that is what links Piazza to Italy. I should find out, his family is from Norristown (about 20 min.) and Phoenixville (about 5 min.) which are both very close to me.

[HatCityEnforcer]

In regards to Italy, they may have changed it to a parent or grandparent born there for a player to be eligible to play for them...The Greek Olympic baseball team went with this approach.

If that's the case, then it explains why Piazza and Frankie The Cat are on Team Italia.

[HurricaneDavid]

From Gene Orza (COO of MLBPA):

"I had a conversation with Mike, and he said, 'Gene, thank you, I'm interested in playing. What do you think is better for international baseball ... if I play for the United States, or if I play for Italy? Maybe Italy will need more help. What do you think in terms of the level of competition?'"

Orza's reply to Piazza: "Quite frankly, put aside the fact that I'm an Italian, I think in those terms, you're probably better off playing for Italy."

"Well, all right, I'm signing up for Italy," Piazza told Orza. "He just thought what was good for international baseball was something that he wanted to be a part of, and the best role that he could play in doing something good for international baseball, given this opportunity, was to sign on for the Italian team. If he makes the team, I think they will be pretty good."

Link

I like his rationale. The whole point of this tournament is to increase the worldwide popularity of baseball.

[Shumway]

That Canadian team has a pretty good roster. I knew of some Canadian baseball talent, but that team is pretty promising. Obviously though the US, Dom. Rep. and Japan have to be the overwhelming favorites. It should be a fun event, but I just hope this doesn't wear the players down as the regular season winds down and the playoffs start.

As far as Piazza goes, 1 of the eligibility requirements was that one of the players parents was born in that country, so maybe that is what links Piazza to Italy. I should find out, his family is from Norristown (about 20 min.) and Phoenixville (about 5 min.) which are both very close to me.

Wow, he was born that close to here(I'm in West Chester)? I never knew that...oh well, not really much of a Piazza fan anyways.