L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano I n m a n y A m e r i c a n cities, a century ago, the first place where t h e c h i l d r e n o f I t a l i a n i m m i - grants felt entirely comfort- able was not school and not even home, but a patch of open ground between build- ings. Empty lots, half-paved streets, and small neighbor- hood parks became gather- ing spots in the afternoons, where boys improvised bases with pieces of wood or flat- tened tin cans and argued over rules learned from older kids. Their parents spoke dialects from Sicily, Campa- nia, or Liguria, yet the lan- guage in those fields was dif- ferent, fast, and practical, made of gestures, shouts, and shared understanding. I n t r u t h , w h a t t h e y w e r e l e a r n i n g w a s n o t o n l y a game: without quite realiz- ing it, they were learning how to belong. At the turn of the twenti- eth century, millions of new- comers were arriving in the United States, and Italian f a m i l i e s o f t e n s e t t l e d i n tightly knit neighborhoods w h e r e d a i l y l i f e r e v o l v e d around relatives, parish, and work. Outside those blocks, however, expectations were unfamiliar and sometimes unwelcoming, and children crossed that boundary more easily than adults ever could. B a s e b a l l , w h i c h w a s already spreading rapidly t h r o u g h A m e r i c a n c i t i e s , offered a kind of shortcut into the wider world because p a r t i c i p a t i o n r e q u i r e d almost no introduction: a boy who could catch a fly ball or run the bases quickly found himself included, even if his English was hesitant. I n a p a t t e r n s o t y p i c a l o f childhood, skill and "being good at playing" spoke more clearly than accent, and the game created a space where differences mattered a little less. Parents, however, did not always see it that way. In families where money was scarce, many fathers expect- ed their sons to help with jobs or errands after school, and spending hours chasing a ball could look like wasted time, especially in families where every extra coin mat- tered. Yet the attraction per- sisted precisely because the field stood outside the rou- tines of immigrant life: on those makeshift diamonds, children negotiated friend- ships, reputations, and con- f i d e n c e i n a s o c i e t y t h e i r parents were still trying to understand. A good player was recognized at school and in the neighborhood, and t h a t r e c o g n i t i o n c a r r i e d weight in a world where Ital- ian names could still invite suspicion or mockery. Not everything was easy, on the other hand, in the early world of professional baseball, which remained, at least for a while, entangled in the same prejudices that characterized wider society, a s d e m o n s t r a t e d b y t h e e x a m p l e o f P i n g B o d i e , born Francesco Pezzolo, a n a m e r e p o r t e r s q u i c k l y replaced with a nickname that sounded easier and, to them, more entertaining. But the change also reveals how public life worked at the t i m e : a c c e p t a n c e o f t e n depended on appearing less foreign, especially in a sport followed by national audi- ences. Italian players proved their ability, but they also learned how closely image and opportunity were con- nected. By the late 1930s, a differ- ent kind of reception began to appear, and much of it centered on Joe DiMaggio. R a i s e d i n S a n F r a n c i s c o within a family of Sicilian f i s h e r m e n , D i M a g g i o entered professional base- ball carrying both extraordi- n a r y t a l e n t a n d a b a c k - g r o u n d f a m i l i a r t o m a n y i m m i g r a n t h o u s e h o l d s . Newspapers and magazines described him with admira- tion, presenting him as dis- ciplined, modest, and reli- a b l e ; t h i s w a s p i v o t a l because it associated Ital- ians with an image that was trustworthy and amicable. Now, the importance of this moment, for a minority that was still affected socially by the usual negative stereo- types associated with immi- grants, needn't be explained. F i g u r e s l i k e D i M a g g i o managed, in other words, to transcend the realm of sport and enter that of sociality and integration: baseball became at once a moment of family gathering, with rela- tives listening to the game on the radio together, and of " b e l o n g i n g " t o t h e n e w Motherland, thanks to the all-American appeal of the sport. Gradually, the connection deepened, especially once Italian Americans began to appear not only as players but also as managers, coach- es, and executives, a change that mirrored the communi- ty's broader social mobility; this is why historians of the sport say that baseball, in m a n y w a y s , f o l l o w e d t h e l a r g e r I t a l i a n - A m e r i c a n experience: early skepticism, t h e n v i s i b i l i t y t h r o u g h achievement, and eventually familiarity. In the end, those modest neighborhood fields explain t h e c h a n g e m o r e c l e a r l y than any major stadium ever c o u l d . T h e c h i l d r e n w h o g a t h e r e d t h e r e w e r e n o t thinking about assimilation, nor about how they might be perceived in a new country; t h e y w e n t b e c a u s e t h e i r friends were there, because the afternoon was long, and b e c a u s e t h e g a m e w a s absorbing enough to make them forget, at least for a while, the small hesitations that marked life outside the neighbor hood. Yet it was p r e c i s e l y t h r o u g h t h o s e r e p e a t e d a f t e r n o o n s t h a t they began to move more easily within a society that at first felt distant and difficult to read. Baseball provided a set of shared expectations, a l a n g u a g e o f g e s t u r e s a n d o u t c o m e s t h a t d i d n o t depend on accent, and suc- c e s s d e p e n d e d o n w h a t a p l a y e r c o u l d d o i n t h e m o m e n t r a t h e r t h a n o n where his family had come from. From this angle, baseball did not dissolve differences, nor did it remove the barri- e r s i m m i g r a n t s f a c e d i n other parts of life; however, it offered a setting in which a person could be known for a skill that others admired, and that kind of recognition often traveled faster than social acceptance itself. A well-timed hit, a strong sea- son, or even the reputation of a good local player could alter how neighbors, teach- ers, and employers respond- e d , a n d o v e r t i m e , t h o s e small adjustments accumu- lated. Long before broader approval appeared in other s p h e r e s , t h e b a l l f i e l d allowed Italian Americans to occupy a visible and respect- ed place in public life, grad- u a l l y e x p a n d i n g , a l m o s t without announcement, the sense of who belonged with- in the national story. Playing for more than a score: Italian Americans and baseball FRANCESCA BEZZONE Playing baseball in the streets: this is how young Italian Americans began being included (Image created with DALL-E 2); bottom right: the most famous Italian American in baseball, Joe DiMaggio (By Sporting News - Library of Congress. https://commons.wikimedia.org/. Public Domain) LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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