From West Haven To The World Baseball Classic: How One Pitcher Got His Italian Job
- Dominic Konareski
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
With the World Baseball Classic firing on all cylinders with pool play, it is partially thanks to West Haven that one particular coach gets to be at one of the biggest heights.
Dave Righetti is 67-years-old and is serving as an assistant pitching coach for Team Italy in the WBC. Righetti took the Italian job due to his Italian heritage despite being born in San Jose, California. Righetti’s grandfather was from Liguria, Italy and emigrated in 1907. The WBC doesn’t require the player(s) or staff to be directly from the country they are playing for, but strict heritage rules apply such as family trees.
Overall, Righetti himself has never stamped his passport in Italy, but for him all roads lead back to the minor leagues in West Haven.
The 1979 season was a year of lasts. It was the last year Righetti would be a full-time minor leaguer to begin the season, along with it being the last year that West Haven, Connecticut had the West Haven Yankees, who played their final season before relocating and completely changing their name.
Dave Righetti would appear in 11 games for West Haven with all coming in starts. The 20-year-old would post a 1.96 ERA in 69 innings before his promotion to Triple-AAA. Despite his sub 2.00 ERA, West Haven would struggle to provide run support, turning great outings into losses for what was a 4-3 record as a Yankee.
Righetti would make his debut later on in the season and became a New York Yankees legend and pitched 16 successful seasons in the bigs as both a starter and reliever. His no-hitter on July 4th, 1983, stands as a career highmark for the Italian-American, as it was the first at Yankee Stadium since Don Larsen’s perfect game 27 years prior in the World Series.
West Haven provided the best stint of Righetti’s minor league career before his major league debut. If you take out West Haven, Righetti’s minor league career never saw an ERA below 2.90. Overall, Dave Righetti stands as one of the greatest pitchers in West Haven Yankees history, along with being one of the most successful players to come out of the West Haven team throughout their stay from 1972-79.
At the making of this article, Italy is 2-1 in group play and tied for first place. Italy competes in Pool B, with the likes of Team USA, Mexico, Great Britain and Brazil.
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