Fil-Am Yankees player Anthony Volpe in town for baseball clinic

MANILA, Philippines — Anthony Volpe was in the country recently, and he wanted to make sure his visit would have an impact in the baseball community, so he made it a point to have a baseball clinic during his short trip.

Volpe plays shortstop for the New York Yankees, and since his mother is Filipino, he has always wanted to visit the Philippines.

He was picked in the first round of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft, suited up in 2023, and won the American League Gold Glove Award during his rookie season.

The “Anthony Volpe Baseball Clinic” was made possible by the Taguig City LGU, through Mayor Lani Cayetano. Major sponsors were Red Bull, Adidas, Fanatics and Victus. It was organized by the Volpe family and Jun Muyco.

Anthony Volte (left) talks to this writer.

Photo courtesy of Anthony Suntay

Real Sports: Welcome to the country, I heard it’s your first time?

Volpe: Yeah, and so far, so good. It's been amazing. I got to see where my mom grew up and we're here with a bunch of family, so it’s special for all of us, and we have been looking forward to it for a while.

RS: Apparently, you’ve wanted to do this for a while, now you were able to squeeze it into your schedule.

Volpe: Growing up, we were all so busy. And my parents wanted us to be old enough to appreciate it, and then once we did we got super busy. But one of my cousins is getting married, so I kind of circled it on the calendar and it gave us time to plane in, and it came at a good time during the off-season so it's exciting.

RS: Why did you want to be able to start giving back to the sport already, at such a young age?

Volpe: Yeah, something that's really important to me and my family. This is something that helped me, and they grounded it in me from a young age that it's one of the things you work for, kind of your whole life, is to get to a point where you have a platform when you can get back and do special things like this because as cool as this whole trip is for us, the memories and impact that we hope to make here will definitely go a lot longer, with whatever we'll be able to do here.

RS: You think you might be able to be a catalyst for baseball here in the country?

Volpe: (Laughs) Yeah, I guess when you think about it, it's pretty crazy when it hits you, it's pretty special, but I just love playing. If I can share any story or any piece of advice for any of the kids to strive for or to try to be. It's special to be able to do that what I do, and it’s the same game that they're playing, I just get to play it on the biggest stage, so whenever I can share, whatever I can help with, it’s something I look forward to.

RS: What are you going to be imparting to the kids here?

Volpe: I just want them to have fun! My mom's from here and I obviously grew up a long way away, but I at the same time, I'm just the same as them, that I was never the biggest kid, I didn’t have the intangible biggest things, but I had a really great support system, if you work really, really hard, the sky's the limit.

RS: Is there anything you’d wanna work on during this off-season?

Volpe: Yeah, right after I got surgery on my shoulders, the main thing is rehab then to get back on to the field, and I'm just excited to be at a 100% and get back to playing really. So it's a long process, definitely grueling, but I’ve turned the corner and I’m really really excited for the progress, and to see what's gonna come next.

RS: Any short-term and long-term goals for you in your career?

Volpe: I just want to get back onto the field. It's been a really hard process mentally, to get back to feeling good, but looking back, you're definitely very appreciative of the whole process and kind of building up to be as good as I can be, so it's super exciting. That’s the only goal for me now.

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