Italian Born Strives to Become a Professional Baseball Player

Federico Castagnini or Fede came over from Verona, Italy as a foreign exchanged student to the United States in 2008. Where he played and lettered both years as a tennis and baseball player at Skyline High School in Longmont, Colorado. Fede had a great journey on his way to the league. A member of the Italy Junior National Team, Fede has played in many countries and has had many opportunities to be exposed. He played two years of high school ball, was then only offered one junior college scholarship at Barton Community College, and then received many offers after his two years from Illinois State, Costal Carolina, Liberty, Richman, and Creighton University. Fede choose Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. “I took my official visit there and fell in love with the stadium (TD Ameritrade) home of the college world series, the way they play small ball, they way they cared for us players, and the academics it offered were unbelievable outstanding.”

After his first year at Creighton, Fede was drafted for the first time 909 overall in the thirty-first round by the Baltimore Orioles as an infielder. The biggest decision as this 22-year-old boy was do I take the offer the Orioles have given me or do I go back to school, graduate and play my senior year, and hopefully get drafted again in the 2014 draft. “I always dreamed about the opportunity I have received but I didn’t know how to make it come true until it did in the summer of 2013.” After a long discussion with his family, friends, and high school baseball coaches, he took the opportunity he was given and signed his first contract as a professional baseball player.

Unfortunately, his dream was crushed two weeks before the regular season. The Orioles gave Fede a choice. He could ask for his released or he could stick around in Instructional League until a spot opened up because of injury. Fede decided to give it up at the age of 25.