Alberto D'Auria

Alberto D'Auria

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born March 10, 1967

Biographical Information

Alberto D'Auria played 22 years in Serie A1 and in 120 games for the Italian national team. A second baseman and third baseman primarily, D'Auria played in the Olympics three times. He played on the Serie A1 champion five times. He later became a coach.

D'Auria debuted in Italy in 1985 with Nettuno. In 1986, he hit .219/.296/.260 in Serie A2. The next season, he moved up to A1 and batted .305/.384/.418. In 1988, he slipped to .188/.291/.385, but in 1989 he batted .412/.433/.625 with 38 RBI in 35 games. He was 1 for 4 with a double in the 1989 European Championship, backing up Claudio Cecconi at second for the Gold Medal winners. That year, he played in the first of six Intercontinental Cups he would appear in. The 1990 season saw him still productive with a .303/.377/.406 batting line.

In 1991, D'Auria hit .345/.433/.486 with 35 runs in 35 games. He hit .278/.458/.389 as Italy's starting second baseman in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, leading the club in OBP. In the 1992 Serie A1, he hit .309/.385/.519 for Nettuno. In the 1992 Olympics, he was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts as the backup at 2B to Massimo Fochi and also the backup third baseman for Italy.

D'Auria produced at a .328/.370/.467 clip with 33 runs in 33 games in 1993. He was 4 for 13 with a double, three walks, three runs and a RBI as a part-timer in the 1993 European Championship as Italy took Silver; he split second with Fochi. In the 1993 Intercontinental Cup, he hit .278/.316/.333. In 1994, D'Auria batted .362/.439/.487 with 37 RBI in 40 games. In the 1994 Baseball World Cup, the infielder was 1 for 6 with a double in another backup turn.

D'Auria hit .302/.371/.407 in Serie A1 in 1995 with 45 runs in 46 games. In the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, he was 3 for 8 with a walk and a double. In the 1995 European Championship, Alberto hit .286/~.342/.343 with 10 runs in 9 games.

In Serie A1 in 1996, D'Auria batted .384/.438/.665 with 69 runs, 64 RBI, 27 doubles and 13 home runs in 54 games. In the 1996 Olympics, D'Auria split second base duties with Fochi but turned in an abysmal performance, going 0 for 15 with no walks. In 1997, the Nettuno veteran hit .377 and slugged .651. He scored 73 and drove in 77 in 54 games. In the 1997 Intercontinental Cup, he was 3 for 18 with 2 doubles and 3 walks.

In 1998, D'Auria hit .404/.495/.743 with 52 runs, 22 doubles, 12 homers and 62 RBI in 45 contests in Serie A1. In the 1998 Baseball World Cup, he hit .378/.425/.514 with 8 RBi in 9 games for Italy. He won MVP honors in the 1998 European Cup.

D'Auria batted .281/.356/.385 in the 1999 Serie A1 season. In the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, he hit only .120/.214/.160. In the 1999 European Championship, he hit .286/.455/.429. In 2000, the veteran's production continued to fall, with a batting line of .276/.363/.327. In the 2000 Olympics, he hit .200/.231/.320 as Italy's starting second baseman, his best Olympic performance.

In 2001, D'Auria batted .259/.333/.385 but still drove home 40 runs in 51 games. In the 2002 campaign, he hit .274/.323/.373. In the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, he hit .200/.400/.200, moving to third base as Davide Dallospedale had supplanted him at second.

In 2003, D'Auria hit .291/.360/.408 for Nettuno. He followed with a .242/.315/.336 campaign in 2004 and a .264/.314/.286 year in 2005, clearly a shadow of his former self. Now a player-coach, he was 4 for 17 with a double and 3 walks in scarce duty in 2006. He retired as a player to become Nettuno's third base coach. He also coached for the national team in the 2007 Baseball World Cup, 2010 European Championship and 2014 European Championship.

D'Auria hit .305/.375/.447 in 1,055 games for Nettuno with 268 doubles, 784 runs and 783 RBI. He fielded .964 overall.

From 1991-2006, D'Auria appeared in the most Intercontinental Cups of any player (6) and was second in games played (38, 2 behind Cuba's Jose Estrada).

Sources

• Italian Baseball and Softball Federation
• Defunct IBAF site
• Harry Wedemeijer's international baseball statistics
• Nettunobaseball.net article on D'Auria's retirement