PRESIDENT OBAMA made several sports-related quips during a toast at last night’s state dinner honoring Italian Prime Minister MATTEO RENZI’s visit to the U.S. People with sports and media ties that attended the White House event included former IndyCar driver MARIO ANDRETTI, Disney Senior VP/Governmental Relations RICHARD BATES, U.S. Special Olympics runner ANDREW PETERSON, Paralympic Gold Medal-winning Italian fencer BEATRICE VIO, Google CEO SUNDAR PICHAI and financier HAIM SABAN (see a full list of attendees here).
Some of the quips during Obama’s toast, via the White House pool report:
-- "Welcome to the final state dinner of my presidency. ... But in the immortal words of a great Italian American, YOGI BERRA, 'It ain’t over 'till it’s over.'"
-- "America is a place where no matter what you look like, what your last name is, how many vowels you have in your name, you can make it if you try. And even if we are not Italian American, or Mets fans, we can celebrate that MIKE PIAZZA is finally in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
