The Italian Baseball League (IBL;

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: ') is a

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that is governed by FIBS (Italian Baseball & Softball Federation), which has its headquarters in

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. The IBL is a wood bat league in which both composite and aluminum bats are prohibited; the official ball of the IBL is the '' Wilson 1010 Italy''. Until 2010, the IBL featured a league format that demoted the last place finisher to the minor leagues (Series A2), while the Series A2 champion would be promoted into the IBL. However, in late 2009 FIBS approved the decision to eliminate the

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

system starting with the 2010 season and thus now applies a fixed-team

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format similar to that found in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. The current IBL consists of ten teams, each contesting 42 games; a team plays two 3-game series against every other team. The four teams that finish with the best regular season record qualify for a round-robin playoff. The first and second-place finishers of the round-robin are cast into the best-of-7-games Italian Baseball Series and compete for the championship, referred to as the Scudetto.

IBL players

For the 2010 season, FIBS maintained the number of sport visas granted to non- EU import foreign players at 4 per team. Per EU and Olympic Committee directive, EU citizens will have the same player rights of Italian passport holders. FIBS, however, will continue to enforce the regulation on the Italian School of Baseball that requires six ASI ''(Associazioni Sportive Sociali Italiane)'' players be on the field at all times of every game, including the pitcher in either game 2 or 3 of each series. An Italian player is classified as Italian School of Baseball, or ASI, only if he has been developed in Italy or if has played six seasons in the Italian Leagues.

EU citizen European Union citizenship is afforded to all citizens of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU citizenship is additio ...

s have the same rights of the players who hold Italian citizenship but were not developed in Italy. One particular case of the ASI rule would be a foreigner who developed as a baseball player in Italy (started playing as an U15). This is the case of a foreigner who is also an ASI, but will be able to play only respecting the limitation on import players.

Three-game series format

Game 1 of each three-game series is classified as the ''Foreign Affair Game'', with the pitcher's mound free to be occupied by any pitcher including foreign imports. In either Game 2 or Game 3, an EU pitcher may be the starting pitcher; however, IBL rules require that an ASI be the starting pitcher for one of these two remaining games. Moreover, whichever game a manager selects the ASI as the starting pitcher, then all subsequent pitchers must be ASI. Therefore, there may be ASI vs EU match-ups for the first time beginning in 2010. Half of the teams are based in the

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region of Italy. A team from the

Republic of San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

also plays in the IBL. Like

Japanese baseball Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 and is Japan's most popular participatory and spectator sport. The first professional competitions emerged in the 1920s. The highest level of baseball in Japan is Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), which ...

, many of the official team names contain the name of the team's corporate sponsor.

Current teams (2020 season)

Champions

Pre-playoff era

Playoff era

Defunct teams

* Orel Anzio

Notable former players

* Jason Simontacchi: Pitcher for Novara Baseball and retired Major League Baseball pitcher * Chuck Carr: Centerfielder for Rimini and retired Major League Baseball outfielder *

Junior Guerra Junior José Guerra Maurera (born January 16, 1985) is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher for the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Milwauke ...

: Pitcher for T & A San Marino before joining the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

* Robel García: Infielder for Fortitudo Bologna before joining the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

* Abraham Núñez: Outfielder for The Nettuno Baseball Club and retired Major League Baseball outfielder

References

External links

FIBS
Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball website
Italian Baseball League Encyclopedia and History
Baseball Reference website