A random encounter within the Sao Paolo airport hints at a baseball star’s un-American actions, whereas a not-so-random encounter means that the Dempseys are all in for the U-S-A.
BY
John Godfrey
Posted
June 14, 2014
5:54 PM
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SAO PAOLO—A humorous factor occurred on the way in which to Natal: I ran into future MLB Corridor of Famer Mike Piazza at Sao Paolo’s Governador André Franco Montoro worldwide airport.
OK, I did not actually stumble upon him. I did see him first although.
Resplendent in a pink, zippered sweatshirt with “Palermo” emblazoned on the entrance, the previous New York Met and Los Angeles Dodger was doing the identical factor everyone else was doing—ready for his flight and looking out ahead to watching some World Cup soccer.
And since I performed Pony League baseball in San Diego with Piazza’s former Santa Monica, Calif., roommate, Eric Karros, I figured I used to be inside my rights to go say Hello and ask Piazza whether or not he was rooting for the US, the nation the place he was born and raised, or Italy, the nation of his pink zippered sweatshirt.
Piazza, it seems, is a soccer fan. However in contrast to the numerous Individuals round him, he wasn’t heading to Natal to assist the US in its match towards Ghana. He was heading to Manaus to assist Italy in its World Cup opener towards England.
Piazza, a local of Norristown, Penn., who lived in Cresskill, N.J., when he performed for the Mets, traveled all the way in which from Los Angeles to Brazil to observe the Azzurri and never the Yanks?
Yep.
To be truthful, Piazza can be the hitting coach for the Italian nationwide baseball group. However he was fast to say that he will probably be rooting for the Yanks so long as they stick round.
“I’m definitely not a frontrunner,” Piazza mentioned, “but it’s like anything. Once—if—the U.S…” He began over.”I’m pulling for the U.S.—tried and true. But if, God forbid, they don’t pull through I’ll fall into the Italian camp. That’s what I’ve done every World Cup for the last 20 years. Doesn’t every fan do that?”
Hmmmm.
I additionally bumped into four-fifths of the Dempsey household on the airport, and I am pretty sure that their World Cup allegiances usually are not in the least divided.
Bethany Dempsey, Clint’s spouse and a veteran of the 2010 Sports activities Illustrated swimsuit challenge, stood in line subsequent to me as we boarded the flight.
With youngest daughter Sophia wrapped up tight, the impressively calm Ms. Dempsey carried a mom’s load of baggage and carry-ons whereas maintaining a tally of son Jackson and daughter Elyse, the latter of whom was busy making associates with the opposite passengers.
“My Daddy’s the CAPTAIN!” Elyse introduced, drawing smiles from her mom and everyone else inside earshot.
John Godfrey is the founder and editor in chief of American Soccer Now.
