John Guggiana

Joseph Guggiana

• Bats Left, Throws Left

• School Loyola Marymount University
• High School Bishop Montgomery High School

• Born October 4, 1956

Don Wedman reaches base against Team Italy player John Guggiana during the 1981 Harlem Honkbal Week.

Biographical Information

Third baseman John Guggiana played six seasons in Italy, winning a MVP award.

Guggiana stole 27 bases in high school in 1975; it remains the school's record through 2011. After college, he went on to continue his baseball career in Italy. He hit .399/.453/.595 with 51 runs and 46 RBI in 39 games for Parmalat Parma in 1981, winning the MVP award. As Italy was using aluminum bats, he failed to lead the league in any Triple Crown category, as offensive statistics were high. In the 1981 European Championship, he hit .438/.486/.719 with 11 runs and 11 RBI in 9 games for the Italian national team, which finished second. He split third base with Gianmario Costa and first base with Carlos Guzman and Giorgio Castelli. He tied Michele Romano for the team lead in RBI and tied Paul Gagliano for second in runs, one behind Romano.

With Parma in 1982, he remained productive at .367/.423/.657 with 13 homers, 39 RBI and 43 runs in 40 contests. He hit .226/.314/.397 in the 1982 Amateur World Series and made three errors in six games at third, where he started for Italy; he also backed up Eddy Orrizzi at 1B. Guggiana's final season for Parma was his best, as his batting line was .402/.460/.809 with 25 home runs, 67 runs and 82 RBI in 59 games. During the 1983 European Championship, he hit .467/.543/.800 and fielded .909 as the Italian third baseman. He had 10 runs and 13 RBI in 9 games as Italy won it all. He was third on the Azzurri in both slugging and RBI.

In 1984, Guggiana played for Pesaro, hitting .355/.451/.789 with 8 home runs in 18 games. He played for Italy in the 1984 Amateur World Series (.270/.341/.378, .919 FLD%) and the 1984 Olympics. After not appearing in 1985, he hit .359/.370/.553 with 30 RBI in 24 games for San Marino in 1986.

For his career, he hit .383/.435/.686 with 205 runs, 230 RBI, 57 home runs and 18 steals (in 22 tries) in 184 games in Italy. He fielded .924 at 3B. Through 2012, he was tied for 43rd in Italian annals in home runs (even with Jerry Mondalto). Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in average (behind Castelli, Craig Stimac, Jesse Baez and Bianchi) and slugging (trailing Bianchi, Castelli, Stimac and John Long).

Sources

• Italian Baseball Federation
• Bishop Montgomery records