FIBS President speaks about the Italian Baseball League

As we near the presentation of the 2014 season, which is scheduled for Thursday April the 3rd at the main hall of the Olympic Committee in Rome, the spotlight will be on Italian Baseball League (IBL) and its drop from 10 teams in 2013 to 8 in 2014 with a formula that will see the league divided into two different divisions of four clubs for the first half of the season. Each club will play the opposing teams in there division in two, two game series, and will also play the other division in one interleague round that will last a total of four weeks. Come the beginning of June the second phase of this years IBL will get underway with the top two clubs out of each division moving onto the battle it out in a semifinals round that will last an additional six weeks with three games a week being played. Those two clubs coming out of the semifinals will then move onto a best of seven finals in August.

At the moment there are many skeptics about the health of the league, especially in the financially stricken times that we are living in today. Since the idea of the IBL first came into play back in 2007 there have been a number of formulas tried out that have all been short lived due to different problems at the club level in terms of being able to stay afloat financially speaking as well as being able to put a quality product on the field to compete at a decent level. Many things haven’t gone exactly as planed, even in terms of clubs denouncing participation at the last moment as happened this year with Mastiff Arezzo, one of three clubs that lasted just a year in the IBL with the others being Reggio Emilia and Ronchi dei Legionari.

The good news is the party is still alive and the 2014 season is just around the corner. It may be an uphill battle, especially in a country that is dominated by soccer, but the movement towards the progression in the game of baseball will continue on. The best news that could come out of 2014 would be the news of a rebirth of baseball and softball at the Olympic games in Tokyo in 2020. Such news would help bring the financial support that is needed across the board. For now the Italian Baseball Federation will have to rely on international tournaments such as the World Baseball Classic to help not only spread the word of the game across the Italian peninsula but also help with the flow of cash that can be sprinkled down across the league.

The participating teams in the league this year will be the 2013 Champs San Marino, Bologna, Parma, Padova, and Godo in Division A, and Rimini, Nettuno, Nettuno 2, and Godo in Division B.