When Larry Baldassaro is at his everyday job at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he’s a professor of Italian and the director of the Honors College.

But recently, Baldassaro served as an interpreter for the Italian baseball team that participated in the World Baseball Classic.

Baldassaro was invited by Major League Baseball to help as an interpreter because he speaks Italian and has written extensively about baseball, he said.

Baldassaro traveled to Orlando, Fla., where the Italian team played (in the same first-round group that included Australia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela).

The Italian team won its first game, 10-0 against Australia, but lost its next two games, eliminating the team from advancing to the second round.

Before one game, Baldassaro said Tommy Lasorda, a former MLB manager and current ambassador at large for the classic, gave a “rousing” pep talk to the Italian team.

“He got the team all fired up,” Baldassaro said.

But, he said, the team went out and lost 6-0 to Venezuela before losing the next day to the Dominican Republic, 8-3.

For most of his work, Baldassaro would accompany the team to press conferences in case any Italian journalists wanted to ask questions.

Much of his work, however, ended up being in one-on-one sessions with journalists and players.

One of the Italian players, catcher Mike Piazza, expressed interest in “reconnect(ing) with roots.”

“He talked about how proud he was to be representing Italy,” Baldassaro said.

Baldassaro said the purpose of the baseball classic is to expand the global reach of baseball. He said it would help in “highlighting” the growth of the sport across countries. And, he said, it would help the sport to grow in countries where it is not among the most popular sports, including Italy.

Baldassaro said he was impressed with a story that Bill Castro, the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen coach and the Dominican Republic’s pitching coach, told him.

Castro told Baldassaro that his concern was about high-paid players and whether they would mesh with the team if they didn’t get enough playing time or the right spot in the batting order.

But Albert Pujols, first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals and a player on the Dominican Republic team, told the team that they were there to perform as a team and that “the only thing that matters is the name on the shirt,” Baldassaro said.

After that, Castro knew the team would be cohesive and play as a team.

“It’s like watching amateurs do it for the love of the game,” he said.

Baldassaro said that he was able to talk to one of his favorite players at the classic, Dave Nilsson, a member of the Australian team and a former catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers.

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