D3baseball.com Daily Dose

By David Chestnut (Baruch College)Â

Today we visited the American University of Rome. The school has almost 600 students during the fall and spring and about 300 in the summer. Many of the faculty there are actually former CUNY faculty members. When we first arrived on campus we were taken to the best view in Rome. This was located on top of one of the buildings of the university. The sight was beautiful because we can see the whole city from there. We then got a chance to check our email at one of the computer labs, which was badly needed. I had not had a chance to talk to any of my family or friends since I got here so I left them messages on their myspace accounts. We then ate lunch at the school with the president who gave us information about the school. For their hospitality we gave them CUNYAC hats and tee shirts signed by the team. We left after that and headed to the baseball field for a childrens clinic. This was a lot of fun as we got to teach the children of Italy baseball and interact with them. Even though we didn’t communicate with them much verbally since we don’t speak the same language, we communicated with them through the game of baseball, which shows how much understanding these kids have for the game and the great future of baseball there is in Italy. After the one hour clinic we took batting practice and got ready for our game against Nuova Roma, an organized team in Rome, Italy. We beat them 25-1. They were not that strong as a team though. I went 3-for-6 and pitched two scoreless innings. After the game we signed autographs for the children and took numerous pictures with them. This was fun because we put a smile on their face and a show for them. All in all day four of the CUNYAC Goodwill Tour was a great day.