Mario Chiarini (born 7 January 1981) is an Italian

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics. He's the current captain of the Italian team.

Career

Club

Mario Chiarini was 16 years old in his senior debut, in 1997, for his hometown team Rimini Baseball.

Minor league

Chiarini played for the

Arizona League Mariners The Arizona Complex League Mariners are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, competing in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona. The team is ...

in 2000.

Back to club

After his stint with Mariners, Chiarini continued his career in Rimini from 2001 to 2015. With Rimini he won 3 Italian championships, and 2 national cups. Chiarini currently plays for the T&A San Marino.

International

Mario Chiarini has played for

Italy national baseball team The Italy national baseball team represents Italy in international baseball competitions. The Italian national team was ranked 17th in the world as of 2020. The team is managed by Mike Piazza, a former New York Mets player and Major League Baseb ...

since 2002. He made the roster for the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...

for the first time in 2009. He also represented his country in the 2013 edition. At the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference tie ...

, Chiarini made a spectacular diving catch to rob

Bobby Abreu Bob Kelly Abreu (; ; born March 11, 1974), nicknamed "El Comedulce" and also "La Leche", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York ...

of an RBI. In the process of doing so, Chiarini suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction: Mario's belt split in half. As a member of national team, he won two

European Baseball Championship The European Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Europe, governed by the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). History Italy won the inaugural European Baseball Championship in , and ...

s, in 2010 and in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

. He missed the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

edition because of an injury, to which manager Mazzieri said to be "strange to coach the team without him for the first time".

External links

References

1981 births 2009 World Baseball Classic players 2013 World Baseball Classic players 2015 WBSC Premier12 players 2017 World Baseball Classic players Arizona League Mariners players Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Italian expatriate baseball players in the United States Living people Olympic baseball players for Italy Rimini Baseball Club players T & A San Marino players Expatriate baseball players in San Marino {{Italy-baseball-bio-stub