How Roberto Baggio Spent His 50th Birthday

2/20/2017

Roberto Baggio drew attention with public acts of great imagination but that is long over.

He was a relatively simple person who could stun a stadium, a nation, with sudden feats -- a gift, a blessing, like the goal from nowhere that saved Italy in the 89th minute against Nigeria in 1994.

Now, says the convert to Buddhism, life is a daily search for happiness. For his 50th birthday, he did not need glamour, but instead he made a trip to the region of Italy struck by a monstrous earthquake last Aug. 24, and brutally shocked again recently. He saw devastated buildings and disrupted people.

Baggio stood impassively when he botched his penalty kick to end the 1994 World Cup final against Brazil. That was terrible, of course, but he did not make operatic gesticulations, and did not bring up the hamstring that Bulgaria had pounded in the semifinal. The earthquakes are real life.

Baggio does not coach, does not seek the spotlight in the big cities; he gave up his familiar ponytail when his hair became predominately gray. He does not haunt his old squads like Juventus and AC Milan (where he helped win Serie A championships.)

He is a paradox – a Buddhist who likes to hunt small game. (A good friend of mine has Baggio’s voice on his cellphone, asking if a certain piece of equipment might be found in a sporting goods store in the Stati Uniti.)

And for his 50th birthday he chose to visit Amatrice. At one point he said he would like to see what can be done.The video will show an inner-directed man clearly suffering as he walks through the broken town, and then he cries and cannot speak anymore.
* * *
Of course, Baggio’s 50th birthday was not forgotten. Perhaps the sweetest tribute came from Alessandro Del Piero, who played with Baggio for two seasons at Juventus, and replaced him as artist-in-residence for the Azzurri.

What a string of brilliance, from Il Divin Codino (The Divine Ponytail) to Il Pinturicchio (an Italian painter.) They scored goals and they assisted on goals and they played for the best squads in the generation-plus when Serie A was undisputedly the best league in the world.

I don’t think I have ever read a more beautiful tribute from one athlete to another:
http://www.alessandrodelpiero.com/news/buon-compleanno-roby_541.html

Baggio and Del Piero both suffered insults from the Juve owner, Gianni Agnelli:

In 1994, Agnelli described Baggio as “a wet rabbit” after a poor performance against Mexico. But Agnelli later compared the master Baggio to the young Del Piero as Raphael against a lesser painter of small stature (Il Pinturriccio.) It’s nice to be the boss.

Baggio and Del Piero had so much more in common – the No. 10, the genius, the awareness, the modesty. Seeing them photographed together gives me shivers of memory, from their long reign of artistry.

Baggio and Del Piero/ Grazie, La Gazzetta dello Sport

Andy Tansey

2/21/2017 12:09:38 pm

This is a nice and touching story. If not for your writing, I'd have no idea about Baggio's gentle soul. I am late to the beautiful game, lured by my children's soccer careers which started in 1996.

I remember catching the Kicks from the Mark with my wife and 5- and 3-year olds to end the 1994 World Cup and the four of us promptly and cheekily heading to our favorite Italian restaurant, Prince Umberto in Franklin Square, with a tiny sense of morbid curiosity. I have always had a twinge that was insensitive of us. The proprietors were visibly somber, but the pasta e fagioli there is the best I've ever had. It was an afternoon that contributed to an adult-life obsession with jogo bonito and strong sentiments for Brazil.

But for your insights, George, I would not have seen as much of the human behind that kick (as I recall, over the crossbar and to the left?). It is good to see athletes showing such concern for what's truly important at times like these. We need all the help we can get.

Gene Palumbo

2/21/2017 12:43:16 pm

George,
This is beautiful. Thanks so much for it - the post, and the column of yours that you linked to.

George Vecsey

2/21/2017 03:05:37 pm

Dear Andy & Gene: Thanks for your comments. I was lucky to have a friend who was around the Italian team.Said he once stood near Baggio as he practice free kicks -- curled in all 10. Of course, easier in practivce than a match.
Baggio didn't break when Sacchi hooked him after keeper was red-carded during WC 1994. Few games later he found a seam to tie the knockout game with Nigeria, then won with PK in OT. I saw the head of the federation look like he was going to jump out of the press tribute in closing minutes if they lost.
Best pass I ever saw was a grass-skimmer from Baggio to George Weah, going 60 mph yet avoiding offisides, and Weah converted. They only played briefly together at AC Milan -- in perfect synch.

Alan Rubin link

2/23/2017 11:09:59 am

George

Thanks for sharing your insights on Roberto Baggio’s fiftieth birthday.

Del Piero's simple and sincere birthday wishes for Baggio showed the true meaning of friendship. We do not see enough of the softer and caring side of pubic people.

I recently read a story about Paris Saint-Germain’s signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The manager, I’m not sure if it was Carlo Ancelotti or Laurent Blanc, was concerned about how Zlatan would affect the team's chemistry. The decision to sign him was made after it was learned that Zlatan had given a ride home to a crying school boy who had missed his bus.

The manager had not seen that side of Zlatan and felt he would not be a problem. It was a wise decision as Zlatan blended in well and helped PSG to several championships.

“I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic” is an interesting read. He overcame a very tough youth through confidence, hard work and eventually confidence in his abilities. Thinking back on the book, there was evidence of his softer side.

https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Zlatan-Ibrahimovic/dp/0241966833/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NDN9X0GFTF3S10B4CJHN

The human interest stories are one of the many highlights of your blog.

George Vecsey

2/24/2017 08:34:13 am

Alan, thanks for the response.
Ibrahimovic is surely a force on the field -- physically dominant, but also looking to score from all over.
I never knew much about him til recently -- complicated man complicated life. Didn't know the story of PSG and the ride he gave to a schoolkid.
He speaks five languages, I read.
GV

Brendan Buckley

2/27/2017 11:11:10 pm

Thank you, George, for sharing this story - heart warming to know that the man whose creative scoring touch captured the headlines as we hosted our first World Cup in 1994 is an empathic soul. Our children serenaded us from the back seat with the chant "Roberto Baggio, Roberto Baggio!" during that summer. And our family collectively mourned when his PK sailed over the bar to allow Brazil to win the final. You may remember that I shared with you the journal of my experience as a fan that summer. I was thrilled by his magic touch. I wish him well.

Happy New Year 2018 link

3/1/2017 03:38:09 am

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Guus van Holland link

3/23/2018 08:51:08 am

Thank you George. I was a fan of Roberto as a footballplayer. I was there at the final in the Rosebowl in Pasadena. Since I became interested in buddhism, I read stories of Baggio, so this article is wonderful. I hope I will meet him some day. Maybe you can tell me how.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

How Roberto Baggio Spent His 50th Birthday

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