Italy is in love with the New York Yankees

Kevin Henry

Rome: I didn’t expect to get into a baseball discussion in the shadow of The Vatican, but Paolo wasn’t going to let me leave his restaurant without some questions about the upcoming season and showing me his New York Yankees hat.

Wearing his Yankees hat inside a restaurant aptly named Spaghetti (a good one, by the way, if you’re ever in need of some food while waiting to take a tour of The Vatican Museums as my wife and I were), Paolo took advantage of my American heritage to talk about America’s pastime with me.

“I love the Yankees,” he said with an excitement that felt like Opening Day was just around the corner. “Rome and New York, they’re so similar. That’s why I’ve always been a Yankees fan.”

Walk around the Eternal City (or Florence … or Verona … or even the Amalfi Coast) and you’re bound to see a Yankees hat in the crowd. Italians (and plenty of tourists for that matter) seem to love having that NY logo on their hat, whether it’s a baseball hat or stocking cap (perfect for this time of year).

The love affair between Italy and New York is apparently mutual as the Yankees recently purchased shares in AC Milan. There’s also an interesting collaboration underway where Yankees gear will soon be sold at AC Milan matches, so if you thought there was plenty of New York logos running around Italy already, just wait.

Of course, the Yankees have a history of players with Italian heritage, including current member Anthony Rizzo, who has had the Italian flag waved in his honor at Yankees games in the past. It’s just one of the many strands that seem to connect New York with this part of Europe.

“My dad always talked about Yogi Berra, so I followed the Yankees after that,” Massi told me inside a wine bar in Como where his Yankees hat hung behind the register. “I check their scores as much as I do our local team’s scores.”

We talked Aaron Judge and my grandpa’s love for the Yankees a bit more before he got quiet and looked at me and asked a question.

“Why do you really think they brought Aaron Boone back as the manager this year?”

Ah, some things cross the boundaries of language, even almost 4,000 miles apart.

During my three weeks traveling around Italy at the holidays, I saw a Boston Red Sox hat here and a Los Angeles Dodgers hat there, but there was nothing more prevalent in terms of MLB gear than the Yankees. And, sorry Steve Cohen, not one Mets logo was seen throughout the trip.

Back at Spaghetti, after we talked for a few minutes, I asked Paolo for his prediction for the Yankees for the upcoming season.

“Aaron Judge leads them to win the World Series. Easy.”

In January, it’s good to see that optimism for the Yankees season flows just as freely as the water coming from the Trevi Fountain.

“Come back in November and we’ll celebrate together,” he says as I make my way to the door. With visions of carbonara dancing in my head, if the Yankees can actually win the World Series for the 28th time in franchise history, I may just do that.