'Fuhgeddaboudit!' A Caglianone card perfect for the paisan in your life
Team Italy pulled off perhaps the greatest victory in the country's baseball history over the juggernaut Team USA on Tuesday night at the World Baseball Classic. It'll be hard for any member of the upstart squad to fuhgeddaboudit. That especially goes for Jac Caglianone, thanks to his hot off the presses 1-of-1 autographed Topps card.
The card shows Caglianone going deep in the fourth inning off USA left-hander Ryan Yarbrough, and it features his signature with the indelible Italian-American phrase "Fuhgeddaboudit" underneath. Collectors who purchase the base card (priced at $11.99) have a chance to get the 1-of-1 version.
Fuhgeddaboudit was an appropriate sign-off, considering Caglianone's homer was a no-doubter launched 403 feet at 110.4 mph off the bat. The 23-year-old budding Royals star could not contain his excitement, chucking his bat toward the Italy dugout, although he admitted the launch angle of that bat flip may have been accidental.
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"Pine tar was a little sticky, if I'm 100 percent honest with you. Tried to release it, and my glove just wouldn't open until it got a little too high. So I saw it fly," Caglianone said. "But in the moment it was awesome. It fired up the guys. Almost hit one of them. But it's part of the game, I guess, in a way. But it definitely wasn't intentional, to say the least."
Considering it was his first homer of the tournament, Caglianone's exuberance couldn't be chalked up to caffeine. He only got his espresso shot once he returned to the dugout, where teammate and unofficial Don Vinnie Pasquantino was waiting with a shot of espresso and besos on both cheeks.