WBC - ARRIVEDERCI SOMEONE

As the Dutch showed the Dominicans on Saturday, anything is possible in the world of sports and the WBC.

As such, manager Ernie Whitt claimed he didn't have much convincing to do of his troops heading into tonight's elimination game against Italy.

For those players that were in the '06 inaugural version of this tournament, the only two words necessary to keep them focused on victory over an apparently overmatched Italian squad are -- South Africa.

It was a reality check listening to Team Italy manager Marco Mazzieri discussing his team. He estimated that 18 of his players were pulled from the Italian professional league that has eight franchises, but that many of those players also have other jobs, some in offices, some of them government employees, but not many fulltime ballplayers.

Mazzieri may not have had as good a team as they fielded in '06 but he's much happier because this time, for the most part, they are all genuine Italian citizens and pro players. The last time, apparently MLB controlled the roster and there were a lot of Americans of Italian heritage, with a manager appointed by MLB. Their manager was merely a bench coach.

The starter tonight for Team Italy, with a 70-pitch limit is righthander Dan Serafini of the Monterrey Sultans of the Mexican Triple-A League. A former first round selection by the Twins in '92, he played for six major-league teams with a 15-16, 6.04 ERA. 

The first pitch is being thrown by Don Cherry who was happy to see in BP that none of the Italians were wearing visors on their batting helmets. He was wearing a Canadian tie with a red wine coloured velour jacket. Justin Morneau and Larry Walker immediately headed over to chat to the grape one. 

LINEUPS:

8-Nick Punto ss

34-Davide Dallospedale 2b

27 Frank Catalanotto lf

37 - Valentino Pascucci dh

19- Chris Denorfia cf

47- Giuseppe Mazzanti 1b

14- Alex Liddi 3b

64-Francisco Cervelli c

45- Mario Chiarini rf

29- Dan Serafini p

CANADA

13- Chris Barnwell ss

55-Russ Martin c

19- Joey Votto dh

33- Justin Morneau 1b

44-Jason Bay cf

12- Matt Stairs rf

24- Mark Teahen 3b

8- Nick Weglarz lf

4 - Peter Orr 2b

The attendance tonight is going to be just under 20,000 which may be understandable considering the uncertainty of Canada playing in this game, but if they win there's no excuse for not having a huge walkup crowd for the 5:00 p.m. game tomorrow night vs. Venezuela. The winner moves on to Miami.

Cheers