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  "path": "/nobodys-having-more-fun-than-the-italians",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-15T16:56:32.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "MLB",
    "2026 world baseball classic",
    "diasporic excellence",
    "italian americans",
    "Italy",
    "vinnie pasquantino",
    "fast and loose",
    "surprise 8-6 victory over Team USA",
    "looking directly into the camera",
    "evangelizing"
  ],
  "textContent": "The World Baseball Classic plays it fast and loose with nationality, even by the standards of ordinary sporting events. Despite the urge to romanticize each element of baseball, this works out to be a broadly neutral-value statement. Lineage, the possibility of citizenship, and legacies of colonialism are how teams like the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Italy have filled out their rosters. They are also how the viewer encounters such concepts as Team Great Britain captain Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Team Italy captain Vinnie Pasquantino.\n\nWhich is to say that loose nationality rules in a baseball tournament don't really matter, but can ultimately be very funny. The plethora of Italian-Americans on Team Italy made the team's surprise 8-6 victory over Team USA that much more amusing. Here are some familiar guys—Italian ace Aaron Nola! Italian up-and-comer Jeffrey Alan \"Jac\" Caglianone!—putting the beatdown on some superstars. It arguably would've been even funnier if the Italians lost to Mexico on Thursday to eliminate the U.S. from contention entirely, but it is a sporting event, after all.\n\n\"You're welcome, USA,\" Pasquantino, who hit three homers, said after the game, looking directly into the camera. (He also elaborated on what he hoped to receive from Kansas City Royals teammate and Team USA member Bobby Witt Jr. in thanks: \"I'm hoping he's got a room key for me at his hotel.\") No one can deny Pasquantino's commitment to the Azzurri: He also played on Team Italy back in 2023 and has reportedly been evangelizing the team to all the Italian Americans he encounters in the league, to evidently great success. Not only are they winning, they are also having _fun_.",
  "title": "Nobody’s Having More Fun Than The Italians"
}