It wasn't Alex Liddi's first major league hit, but his first time starting a big league game is one of those moments in a baseball player's life that are hard to forget.
The Sanremo player made his debut last Thursday in the away game on the Texas Rangers diamond. An unlucky match, lost 5 to 3, but which Alex will certainly remember also because he hit valid: a perfect swing baptized a forehand from the opposing pitcher, sending it into the mouth of the left fielder of the home formation and bringing home the first point for the his team.
This is not Liddi's absolute debut, but his first as owner always has a particular meaning. In this case, the fact that Alex started the game in the first half when the season is still early indicates that the Mariners' coaching staff relies heavily on Italian talent.
The twenty-three year old, originally from Sanremo, made his Major League debut last year, at the end of the season. The 2011 season for Seattle was full of disappointments and this convinced the staff – since the dream of the playoffs had faded away – to invest in the development of a sure talent like Liddi's, inserting him in the lineup for the last few matches of the championship.
A choice that paid off: in 2012 Liddi was added to the roster of the first team despite many analysts predicting a restart from triple A, the level below the Major Leagues where the racehorses pawing to make their debut in the first team are "parked" .
Alex made his way both in the 2011 championship finale and during the preparatory phase of the new year: sparkling performances (he was among the first in the entire league in batting average, leaving behind the stars of American baseball) convinced the manager Eric Wedge to field him with the starting lineup.
Liddi is originally from Sanremo, and in Italy he has never stepped on the diamonds of Serie A: as soon as the American talent scouts saw in him the necessary requisites to excel in the great baseball overseas, they did not hesitate to offer him a professional contract.
He then forged ahead in the minor leagues, moving up the category year after year to the sound of home runs and top ten offensive stats, so much so that he earned twice the right to participate in the "All Star Futures game", a game in which the athletes who are considered the champions of the future compete.
He had to win not only on the field, but also off it: no Italian had so far landed in the big American leagues, and all the youngsters who had tried the stars and stripes road hadn't held up against the technical-athletic level of the pro championships. For this reason, the Ligurian talent also had to overcome a good deal of prejudice and reluctance.
So far, there's no doubt he's succeeded, but Alex's story is yet to be written.
