Baseball is a growing, minor sport in Italy

History

The

Spalding World Tour The Spalding World Tour was a baseball tournament financed by the sports company Spalding. The tour began in October 1888 to April 1889, the baseball tour group travelled to Egypt, Italy, France, England, Ireland and the United States T ...

1889 Events January–March * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the ...

brought baseball to Italy, playing three matches. On February 19 at

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, ''All-America'', a selection of players from the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

won 8-2 against the Chicago White Stockings; on the 23rd at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in Piazza di Siena in

Villa Borghese Villa Borghese or Villa Borghese Pinciana ('Borghese family{{!Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill') is the villa built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio (and, after his death, finished by his assistant Giovanni Vasanzio), developing sketches by Scip ...

, Chicago won 3-2; and on the 25th, in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

,'' All-America ''won 7-4. A second American tour passed through Italy in February 1913, conducted by the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

. After failing to find a suitable field in Naples and experiencing unconducive weather in Rome, the team left Italy without playing a single game. The real establishment of baseball in Italy began in 1919 under the leadership of Max Otto. A native of

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

under the name Mario Ottino, he spent several years in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where he became a baseball fan. He returned to Italy after the First World War with equipment and the desire to develop the sport there. The other father of Italian baseball is the Rome native Guido Graziani, who had been organizing matches in Rome since 1920. Despite Otto and Graziani's best efforts, baseball failed to gain interest in Italy. When

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

's fascist government established ''

sabato fascista ''Sabato fascista'' ("Fascist Saturday") was established by the Italian Fascist Grand Council on 16 February 1935. Italians were expected to use Saturday afternoons engaged in cultural, sporting, paramilitary and political activities.Tracy H. Koon, ...

'' ("fascist Saturday"), a mandatory day of sporting and military exercise, baseball was excluded due to its American origins. The arrival of American soldiers in Italy in 1944 changed the situation. Max Otto took the opportunity to relaunch his idea of an Italian league. The first official match played under the authority of ''Lega Italiana Baseball'' and was held on June 27, 1948 in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. With the support of the press and powerful partners, particularly

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

, the debut of this league was a popular success. In Rome, Guido Graziani set up the '' Associazione Italia Baseball''. The two leagues merged in 1950 to create the'' Federazione Italiana Palla Base'', today known as the FIBS (''Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball'').

Governing board

The sport is governed by the FIBS. The

Italian Baseball League The Italian Baseball League (IBL; Italian: ') is a professional baseball league that is governed by FIBS (Italian Baseball & Softball Federation), which has its headquarters in Rome. The IBL is a wood bat league in which both composite and alumi ...

is the highest level of professional baseball in Italy.

National team

The Italian national baseball team is considered amongst the strongest in

European Baseball Championship The European Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Europe, governed by the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). History Italy won the inaugural European Baseball Championship in , and t ...

. The Italian baseball team takes part in international competitions, such as European Championships,

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

or the

Baseball World Cup The Baseball World Cup was an international tournament where national baseball teams from around the world competed. It was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Along with the World Baseball Classic, it was one of two activ ...

in particular. The national team finished fourth in the World Cup in 1974 and 1998, the national team has eight European championship titles between

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Bibliography

* Peter C. Bjarkman, ''Diamonds Around The Globe: The Encyclopedia Of International Baseball'', Greenwood Press, 2004 * Josh Chetwynd, ''Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History'', McFarland & Co Inc, 2008 * Dave Bidini, ''Baseballissimo: My Summer in the Italian Minor Leagues'', McClelland & Stewart, 2004

References

{{World topic, Baseball in, noredlinks=yes