Marco M. Grifantini (born September 17, 1985) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. Grifantini attended Enterprise High School in Redding, California, and the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

. He played for Cariparma Parma of the

Italian Baseball League The Italian Baseball League (IBL; Italian: ') is a professional baseball league that is governed by FIBS (Italian Baseball & Softball Federation), which has its headquarters in Rome. The IBL is a wood bat league in which both composite and alumi ...

and the

Italian national team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

in the

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to March 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike t ...

. In the 2013 season, he plays for the

Dunedin Blue Jays The Dunedin Blue Jays are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and are the Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball club. They are located in Dunedin, Florida, and play their home games at TD Ballpar ...

of the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Florida State League.

Career Summary

Marco Grifantini's baseball career had a humble start playing prep ball at

Enterprise High School (Redding, California) Enterprise High School is a public high school in Redding, California. It has an enrollment of about 1200 students. Enterprise High School is part of Shasta Union High School District in the Redding. Its main rival is Shasta High School. Admin ...

. His skill at pitching saw better days after he joined

Feather River College Feather River College (FRC) is a community college in Quincy, California. The school serves an annual full-time enrolled student body of approximately 1,500 students. History Feather River College was established in 1968 to support the need f ...

, Quincy,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and had to his belt a score of league awards. He, however, got his first international break after he switched to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Davi ...

and was inducted into the college team to play in the College World Series preliminary rounds. That proved to be a turning point in his career. Playing at the packed-to-capacity Stanford University stadium was the most wonderful and unforgettable moment of his life. Graduation over, Marco joined the

. During his four-year stint in the Italian league, he was once able to win the titles of the Best Pitcher. During his career stay in Italy, he had the opportunity to represent the Italian National Baseball Team in international competitions played outside Italy. Marco's latest entry this year was into the Italian team Cinderella that outplayed Mexico and Canada to advance to the second round of the World Baseball Classic. This victory by Cinderella triggered an offer for him from the

, the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

major league baseball club.

References

External links

1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Siskiyou County, California 2013 World Baseball Classic players Baseball players from California UC Davis Aggies baseball players Dunedin Blue Jays players Feather River Golden Eagles baseball players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1980s-stub