From the LA Dodgers to Team Italy - An Inside Look from Esteemed General Manager, Ned Colletti

Photos courtesy of Ned Colletti

Is the biggest luxury in life getting to do what we love? 

As kids, we grow up wanting to be movie stars, teachers, athletes, and coaches with visions of a life larger than ourselves. The reality is that only a few people actually live out those dreams, and even fewer live them at the highest level consistently for nearly five decades. 

Ned Colletti is one of those rare people. 

He is a sports executive with over 40 years of experience in Major League Baseball, notably as General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Assistant GM of the San Francisco Giants, and most recently, as the General Manager of Team Italy in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. On top of that, he’s also one of the only executives to span two major professional sports leagues, having spent the last eight years in the National Hockey League with the San Jose Sharks.

Ned doesn’t just practice excellence in leadership, he teaches it.

He’s a 4× Emmy Award–winning baseball analyst, a professor of Sports Administration at Pepperdine University, and the author of the best‑selling book The Big Chair. He defines success not by titles, but by impact on organizations, culture, and the people lucky enough to be around him.

So when he stepped into the role of GM for Team Italy ahead of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, it wasn’t just another line on a resume. It was a living extension of the kind of leadership philosophy he’s spent his life shaping.

A Legacy Written in Influence and Culture

Most people know Ned as the GM who helped turn the Los Angeles Dodgers into a model of consistency and competitiveness; a franchise that became not just successful on the field, but respected for its team culture, strategy, and identity. For him, leadership has never been about the spotlight. It’s always been about crafting the conditions for success to grow, and then stepping back to let people do their best work.

That philosophy wasn’t just useful in Los Angeles, it became a blueprint for what followed.

When Team Italy entered the 2026 World Baseball Classic, very few predicted the storybook run that would unfold. Undefeated in pool play and ultimately shocking the world with a major victory over Team USA, Team Italy did something extraordinary. It wasn’t luck. It was an intentional design built on class, community, culture, and a shared vision that extended far beyond a single tournament.

Ned shared with me the 3 principles of Team Italy’s success:

1. Collective Buy-In: “This comes from our Manager Francisco Cervelli’s Yankee days and my Dodger days: you’d dress for success. Our guys wore suits to and from games - nobody does that anymore. They all played for and stood on the shoulders of those who came before them.”

2. Community: “The Country rallied around us. More than 7 million people watched the quarterfinal game on televised platforms. That is unheard of in Italy's baseball history.  The news there doesn’t normally report on baseball, but there was not only a lot of great coverage, even Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, spoke to the Italian Parliament on the team’s unprecedented success versus Team USA, saying, “while we can rarely agree on anything, but we can also all agree on how wonderful this is.”  

3. Culture / Customs: “We had an espresso machine in the dugout. When anybody homered, our leader and team captain, Vinnie Pasquantino from the Kansas City Royals, would pour them an espresso in a paper cup and kiss them on both cheeks like the Italian custom. This joyful celebration was captured around the world and became synonymous with the culture of the team.”   

Ned has now had some time to process the experience and shared, “It was wild. It’s unbelievable. It takes a lot to get me emotional about something because I’ve seen so much. I approach everything with humility because I know how humbling sports really are. But this has flooded me with emotion.” 

Colletti’s career isn’t defined by moments, it’s defined by how he creates environments where moments happen. Whether drafting or acquiring players like Clayton Kershaw, assembling coaching staffs, or navigating complex team dynamics, he’s always emphasized, "Great culture and chemistry lead to execution."

That same blueprint guided his approach with Team Italy, a group unified by respect for heritage and identity, and a shared belief in what they could (and would) become.

This isn’t another underdog story. It’s an example of a leader who truly believes in the long view: impact over accolades, culture over headlines, and legacy over momentary applause. This experience will be remembered for generations to come. 

A Personal Q&A with Ned Colletti

1. When you first took the job with Team Italy, did you see the potential for something truly historic, or did you stay focused only on the work ahead?

There is no way to predict what took place.  It was organic and took community - one of the best I have ever been around to accomplish what they did.  

The initial vision was to build a team of people who would compete, be passionate about baseball, and be proud to represent their homeland and heritage.  At the very least, I hoped this would be life-changing, sports-changing. In 1980, there were very few National Hockey League players from the United States. Then the 1980 US Men’s Olympic hockey team won gold, and the Miracle on Ice took place; young people may not have known much about hockey, but they knew it was special, and it captivated them, and now, all these years later, the NHL has many star players born in the United States.  Maybe the 1980 hockey team triggered something.  But history like this cannot be predicted; it can only unfold and be earned.

2. You’ve always emphasized culture before talent. How did you ensure Team Italy’s identity reflected that philosophy during this WBC run?

I think in any walk of life, it’s about who you are just as much, if not more, than what you do.  This group started with very few people knowing each other, and it ended with a brotherhood that grew into friendships for life.

After our loss to Venezuela in the semi-finals, this group stayed on the field for 10 minutes hugging each other, and then they spent 2-plus hours in the clubhouse talking and commiserating - knowing it was so special and knowing that this group will never all be in the same room again.  I have never seen that before, after nearly 8,000 major league games. 

3. Looking back on your time in Los Angeles with the Dodgers, which leadership lessons translated most directly to this global stage?

It’s always about the people.  Everyone has an ego; everyone has pride, but the best teams put that aside for the good of the group.  On any successful team I have seen, that is one of the keys.  They truly played for each other; our manager, Francisco Cervelli, and the coaching staff were very accomplished - 21 World Series rings between them.  None of that mattered more than being united and working for the good of all.  Past history is the resume; today is the day that matters most. 

4. You’ve built excellence across MLB, NHL, international competition, media, and academia. What common thread ties all of these experiences together for you?

The common thread is caring about people and caring about what you do with as pure and true an effort as possible.  That you have control over, most everything else is uncontrollable.  Be the best at the controllables. 

5. As someone who has mentored future leaders both on and off the field, what do you hope a generation of young sports executives takes from this journey?

We live in a very fast-paced world.  The advent of the cell phone and the internet - just to name two - make it very easy to send messages, but can take away from real communication.  One-on-one, dinner conversations, the sharing of ideas, aspirations, and goals verbally, and not on a text message or email.  No doubt, email and texting are extremely valuable, but I will always believe verbal conversations will be vital to success and relationships. After Team Italy upset Team USA - one of the best teams ever assembled for the WBC - I looked around our clubhouse 90 minutes after the game.  There were three tables full of players, some still in uniform, sitting playing cards and talking about the game they had just played - that is the way baseball was in the 1980s.  It was yet another special moment.

In my closing comment to the team, I told them, I encourage you to take what you did with you and never forget it.  Never feel that you cannot accomplish something because someone tells you that you are not good enough, not smart enough, not worthy enough.  Believe that you can do all things in life, because you just proved that you can, and you did. 

6. What are you personally taking away from this Team Italy experience?

I have been blessed beyond measure in my life.  I lived in a remodeled Chicago garage until I was 6 years old. My parents were very hard-working and kind to all.  In my parents' era, graduating from high school was a lofty goal.  

My grandparents came to America as children, hungry and desperate, their parents hoping for a better life.  First and foremost, I took on this endeavor to honor them. Secondly, I wanted this team to put Italian baseball on the map - to help make Team Italy a destination for players in the future.   

For years, Italians have been an afterthought in many ways.  I told our group that on the first day.  I encouraged them to write history; to leave an impact on the game of baseball; to have the people of Italy and Italian-Americans be entertained by and excited about a baseball team; and, perhaps most importantly, to honor those whose shoulders they stand upon.  

The Takeaway

Ned Colletti’s story isn’t just about baseball.

It’s about purpose, longevity, and precision with intent.

He doesn’t chase legacy.

He builds it, and these leadership lessons are applicable far beyond the field. 

Whether he’s in a General Manager’s chair, a classroom, a boardroom, or an international competition, the influence he wields isn’t measured in headlines; it’s measured in culture, the people he elevates, and the paths he clears for others to follow. 

That’s the real luxury of sport: getting to do what you love, while helping others do the same.