Rush’s Geddy Lee Acquires Bidini’s Baseballissimo

Toronto-based singer/songwriter Gary 'Geddy' Lee, leader of the Canadian rock band "Rush" has optioned, as a producer, the film/TV rights to musician/author Dave Bidini's non-fiction 2005 novel Baseballissimo: My Summer In The Italian Minor Leagues."...In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced by the American GIs who liberated the region. Bidini wanted to spend time in a town where everyone is as nuts about the game as he is, and in Nettuno, they love the game so much that they hand out baseball gloves and bats to children taking their first communion."For six months Bidini followed the fortunes of the 'Serie B Peones', Nettunese to the core. At the same time he was also learning about his own heritage, having spent his youth vigorously ignoring his Italianness. The result of his summer in Italy is vintage Bidini: a funny, perceptive, and engrossing book that takes readers far beyond the professional sport to the game that people around the world love to play...""Ged was one of the first people to really get behind the book, which was a thrill for me, obviously," said Bidini."It's early days yet, but I think he's a natural producer. And really, once you've helped run one of the greatest and most respected rock and roll bands of all time, the film biz has got nothing on you, I figure."