Last week, on Wednesday, June 4, three Penn baseball players were drafted.
Senior Nick Italiano, the Quakers' all-time hits leader and a four-time all-Ivy nominee, was not one of them.
Italiano earned the 2003 Blair Batting Title, given to the Ancient Eight's player with the highest batting average, after hitting .420 in Ivy League play.
He was a four-year starter at Penn, and never hit less than .380.
Italiano was recently named South Jersey Athlete of the Year for 2003.
"He's a wonderful and mature kid, one of the finest young men I ever coached," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "He was a great leader for 4 years."
"He did everything and yet he didn't get drafted," Seddon added. "He has Pete Rose credentials -- multi-hit games, highest batting average, best offensive player on the team."
"He had all the things that you would hope teams would be looking for."
Although Italiano wasn't drafted, he has not been entirely overlooked.
Italiano has received offers from baseball teams in Italy. Their season has already begun for this year, however.
"Teams in Italy had seen me, and they saw my last name," Italiano said, jokingly. "I would have an opportunity to play over there, but that would be something more for next year, because their season and rosters are set for this season.
"Italy is something I would definitely look into," he added. "But I would obviously like to stay in the United States."
So what will Italiano do next?
"As of right now, I'm still not sure what it is I'm going to do," Italiano said. "A big part of me still wants to keep playing. But it may not be in the immediate future -- I may wait a little bit."
"I'm going to take a couple of weeks to figure it out," he said. "I'll keep working out and stay in shape."
The main difference between Italiano and the three Penn players that got drafted is that Russ Brocato, Andrew McCreery, and Ben Krantz all play in the field and pitch, while Italiano plays second base.
"Being a pitcher is a big plus," Seddon said. "All of the teams all looking for pitchers."
But Italiano wasn't your average second baseman.
"He's one of the finest players Penn ever had," Seddon said. "He's certainly the best second baseman we ever had."
Seddon noted that he did not receive many calls about Italiano before the draft, but that Italiano did attend a few tryouts.
"It's a shame," Seddon said. "It's tough to watch your teammates get drafted and you don't, particularly three of them."
"It's a crazy game, and the draft is unpredictable sometimes," Italiano said. "I wasn't expecting to be drafted -- but I was hoping to be."
During the last two summers, Italiano played in the Cape Cod Baseball League.
"I think the teams made their minds up last summer," Seddon said. "They don't draft you unless they think that you can make it all the way, and obviously they didn't feel that he could."
But this is certainly not the end of Italiano's baseball career.
"[Playing in the Major League] is something that I had hoped for and always worked for," Italiano said. "Unfortunately the cards didn't fall that way and I'm extremely disappointed ."
"Over the years I've worked hard and I proved that I can play at a higher level," Italiano said.
"I love to play and I love the game of baseball."
