As players for Team Italy in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, the brothers from Cypress went on a tour of the country with some of their teammates. The purpose of the tour was to bring more awareness and excitement about the sport to a country in which it is not popular.
The group made a surprise stop in Florence just for the Fletcher brothers, allowing them to meet and have dinner with cousins from Fernanda Fletcher’s side of the family.
“Our mom taught us Italian when we were young,” Dominic said. “We kind of grew up speaking Italian and then over the years lost little bits and pieces. We still speak decent Italian. It was good enough to be able to have a decent conversation with our family.”
Italy’s WBC team is managed by Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who has long been an ambassador for the sport in the country. Piazza, who moved to Italy with his family after he retired from Major League Baseball, played for Team Italy in the inaugural WBC in 2006, then returned to the team as a coach for the next two editions.
WBC teams have until Feb. 7 to finalize the 30-player roster they will take into the main competition in March, and both David and Dominic are likely to be on the Italian team. It would be the first time since high school that the brothers will play together on the same team.
David, 28, has been with the Angels since they drafted him out of Loyola Marymount in 2015. The versatile infielder will enter the third year of his five-year contract with the team this season. Dominic, a 25-year-old outfielder, plays in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, which drafted him out of Arkansas in 2019. His goal this season is to get a call-up to the majors.
Since turning pro, the Fletchers have played on the same field only once. That was this past summer. David was on a rehabilitation assignment with the Angels’ triple-A team, the Salt Lake Bees, who had a game against the Diamondbacks’ affiliate, the Reno Aces, who Dominic played for.
(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)
Though Dominic thinks David is the better player between the two of them, noting David’s contract, of that triple-A game, he playfully said: “I got more hits than him.”
“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” David said. “Getting to play on the same field in professional baseball and hopefully one day in the major leagues too.”
David was called up to the big leagues the week before Dominic and the Razorbacks were to start their run at the 2018 College World Series. Their father, Tim, already had tickets and plans to see Dominic play. He found a flight to Seattle to catch David, where he was making his debut.
Tim couldn’t follow David and the Angels to their next game, which was in Oakland, because of work. The next week, at the College World Series, Tim parked himself away from much of the crowd, in a set of stands in the outfield, so that he could see Dominic play right in front of him. At the same time, he streamed the Angels game on his phone.
Dominic Fletcher helped Arkansas reach the College World Series in 2019. He hopes to play in the majors this season.
(Michael Woods / Associated Press)
When the boys were children, they would wait for their father to come home from work so that he could pitch to them.
It was a daily routine that included playing makeshift baseball games with some of the other children from around the Aliso Viejo townhouse they lived in. The family moved to Cypress when David and Dominic were 8 and 5, respectively.
“They just loved to play all the time,” Tim said.
Between the brothers — who have a younger sister, Daviana, who’s a cheerleader at Arkansas — baseball started with David. Dominic picked it up from him. But it wasn’t a sport they learned from their dad.
“I think my dad wanted us to play football and my mom was against us playing football,” Dominic said.
David grew into the sport on his own, a simple joy of throwing and catching baseballs, tennis balls, even balloons, and learning how to use a glove when he was a toddler.
“I didn’t know then, but I know now that not a lot of people can do that,” Tim said.
When David was 5 he asked his parents to send him to a summer camp at the Mark Cresse School of Baseball — which has three locations in Southern California and whose alumni include Piazza and former Angels All-Star Mark Trumbo. Fernanda would bring Dominic with her when she brought David to camp and by the next year, Dominic was asking to participate, as well.
“Throughout both of our careers, he got to do everything first,” Dominic said. “Not only advice he told me, but just being able to watch him and learn and pick up on things that he did throughout his journey has really helped me.”
David said that although he offers advice to Dominic, his younger brother does well on his own. “I think he sets a good example of how to work hard,” David added.
The Fletcher brothers played together on the same team just once, at Cypress High. That was in 2013, when David was a senior and Dominic was a freshman, an occurrence that might not have happened as Tim and Fernanda contemplated sending Dominic to a different school. They helped the Centurions to their second CIF Division 2 championship in program history.
“Those two boys were incredibly tireless workers,” Cypress coach John Weber said.
The Fletchers don’t all live in the same place anymore. Dominic lives in Arkansas in the offseason and David lives in South Orange County.
David still goes back to the fields at Cypress High — a special place for the Fletchers, who’ve run around and played on those fields even before they were teenagers — to watch games and even work out in his offseason. He also lends his time and resources to support his old team. Weber said one of his players had his baseball bag and cleats stolen from him. Weber called David, who sent over a new pair of cleats for the player.
“He does things like that, he donates time to our poker fundraiser, he donates things, he comes to our events,” Weber said. In the past, David has also gotten Angels teammates, like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, to donate some of their gear to his old high school team’s fundraisers.
When Dominic is in town, he works out with David and supports some of his community outreach efforts, like David’s charity poker tournament. The next edition of that event, proceeds for which go toward Summer Harvest Food 4 Kids, is Jan. 20 at the Old Ranch Club in Seal Beach.
“I’m awful proud of them and I’m not just talking about baseball,” Tim said. “I said, ‘You gotta give back in some way when you get the opportunity.’ ”