Leo Marconi, the Argentine baseball player in love with Mondovì
From the interview in “Unione Monregalese” of 9 June
The Latin American accent is unmistakable, in an Italian, however, already familiar with those who are now used to commuting between our country and Argentina. The surname then betrays the inevitable ancestors of the Bel Pese, from the Marche to be precise. Leonardo Marconi, 42, for almost two months has landed at the “Passionists”, in the headquarters of Jfk Baseball Mondovì. And, thanks to him, the name of the city jumped on “Olè”, the most widely read and widespread Argentine sports newspaper (a sort of “Gazzetta dello sport” in Buenos Aires) which, in the piece by Sergio Stuart, paints Mondovì as a “city with a 1,300-year history, equidistant with Switzerland to the north, France to the west and Monte Carlo to the south”. For Leo it was immediately a love at first sight: «Here the children play to defend the colors of the community in which they live. It is a great pride, I come from a place with 3 million inhabitants, there is less of this idea ». We met him “in the field”, where the Mondovì diamond stands and, recently, also an indoor structure complete with a “ball-shooting” machine so as not to be stopped even by rain and snow.
Leonardo, let’s start from the beginning of history. How did you and baseball “meet”?
I started when I was five, in Buenos Aires. Here there are these great sports clubs where football, volleyball, and many other sports are played. In addition to the typical and inevitable grilled. My mom often talked about when I stopped to watch the baseball team practice. He urged me to try too, but I was shy. I always said no. In the end, however, they brought me “inside” to what has been my team for a very long time and to which I am still attached, the Daom. I played all the juvenile stages up to the first team in Serie A and in the national team (last appearance in 2011). I arrived in Italy in 2005 in Verona and then Padua. In both cases I started from Serie B and then we moved up to A …
Then the first time in Piedmont, in Mondovì, in the double role of manager and player …
Yes, I have always played first base on the pitch. Now, with the passing years, you do what you can (laughs). The project focuses a lot on the youth teams, I also train the Under 15 team and I get along very well with the boys. I always want to aim to win. This year, as a company, we want to create a group for the future. With the first team the goal is the play-offs, to go up to Serie B. So far it has gone very well, we are second.
What are the differences between Italy and your country?
The problem in Argentina is an economic one. Let me give you an example: the balls. With us you have to buy them in the United States, you pay them in dollars and the exchange rate is one at 95 pesos. Each ball becomes expensive, it must be treated as a precious asset and exploited until it can no longer take it. With the little, however, the national team manages to make good figures. There are those who have come to play in the US or even in Italy. Here, there are the means that we lack. In all of Argentina there will be about thirty teams in all, the Italian Serie B (alone) already has 32.
Seen from the outside, what does it mean to play baseball?
It is a sport that anyone can do: the tall one, the short one, the thin one or the more robust one. You need the little one who runs, while in other roles those who have more power and less speed. We want to convey this: a team that feels proud of the city. And viceversa.
