In light of all the negative air which has seemed to follow Major League Baseball around over these last few months (for a number of reasons), I’ve become quite fearful for the game’s future.
Don’t get me wrong, I am obviously excited that MLB is at least attempting to have a season in 2020 and hope they can play as much of it as possible, but the fact remains that the powers that be in baseball do not seem to care much about the long-term growth of their sport.
Because of this, some of us at MMO began to think – what are people doing to help grow baseball OUTSIDE of the U.S.? And what kind of impact has it made?
We know about countries like the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, and South Korea who make up much of the international baseball community – but what about the rest of the world?
A few days ago, our Michelle Ioannou kicked off our “International Baseball Spotlight” series with a dive into what baseball is like in her beloved country of Greece.
As for me, one event that started this curiosity was the World Baseball Classic.
Seeing so many “non-baseball”-centric countries like Brazil, Israel, and others competing against the baseball “powerhouses” of the world made it clear that the sport has people from all over who are spreading the game well beyond the established international markets.
One country (for obvious reasons) that I began to follow closely was Italy.
Seeing Mike Piazza don the Italia jersey in the first WBC back in 2006, I felt a cool connection with both my heritage and my favorite sport for the first time.
As my curiosity peaked over these last few months, I began reaching out to social media pages of different organized Italian baseball groups to try and get a firsthand explanation of what baseball is like in the homeland.
After some research, I came across the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation (FIBS) page, which showed me just how competitive baseball (and softball) are in some parts of Italy.
The Italian Baseball League (IBL) – started in 1948 (bet you didn’t see that coming) – is comprised of three professional leagues: A1 and A2, which are comprised of the top competition and players in the IBL, and a “minor league” called league B, all of which are governed by the FIBS organization which is headquartered in Rome.
The IBL is widely considered to have the best competition of any professional baseball leagues in Europe.
After becoming aware of FIBS and the different Italian leagues, I reached out to the page of the Italian Baseball Softball Players Association (IBSPA) to find out what they do to represent the players and learn more about the organization.
Shortly after, I received a response from the President of the IBSPA, Massimiliano Geri.
He was excited to speak to me about about baseball in Italy and the IBSPA, and being that we’re both fellow paisanos, we hit it off right away.
Geri is from Livorno, Italy, which (he claims) was the site of the first baseball game ever played in Europe over a century ago.
“We love baseball in Livorno,” he said.
“As a kid I would write letters to my favorite MLB players asking for an autograph, and most of them would write back and send me an autograph on their baseball card or something – that’s how I fell in love with it.”
Geri began playing with the Livorno organization as a little leaguer in 1991, and has been moving around the ranks of the IBL as a right-handed pitcher ever since.
After leaving the Livorno professional team in 2011, Geri would pitch for a few teams throughout the A1, A2, and B leagues until 2019 when he returned to play for his home club, and did the same in 2020.
Once I learned about his playing career in Italy, I asked Massimiliano to explain to me what a typical experience for an Italian ballplayer is like.
Specifically, I was curious to find out: What is the typical salary for a professional player? Do players sign contracts with teams? What are the facilities like at their stadiums?
The answers that I got might surprise you. He explained that as far as salaries go, well, they don’t really get one.
What??
“Maybe one or two players if they’re lucky and make a deal with the owner might get a little money,” Geri said, “but pretty much all the players don’t get paid.”
“They pay for our uniforms and bus rides to away games, that’s really it,” Geri said with a laugh.
What does that mean then? It means that baseball doesn’t pay the bills.
These athletes work regular full-time jobs and go straight from work to the field or gym to practice and train.
This is (in my opinion) what the true definition of “for the love of the game” means.
With so much bickering over money from within MLB lately, you can’t help but want to tip your cap to people who are giving it their all simply out of pride for themselves and the sport they love.
When we spoke about contracts, Geri said that most owners will only do “handshake” deals with players, and that contracts are unfortunately still not common practice in order for a club to “sign” players.
As far as the facilities, most of the stadiums are outdated and don’t even have a clubhouse, so players are left to change into their uniforms in the parking lot.
That is why, in 2017, Geri founded the IBSPA.
“We want to help inform players on what they deserve, so we created the first independent Italian organization in our sport. Our first main objective was creating a standard contract for Italian baseball players, and our hope is that one day it will be used as a standard contract for all FIBS athletes.”
“We don’t want anymore handshake deals!” he exclaimed with excitement.
Not only is the IBSPA pushing to get players written contracts with their clubs, but also representation when it comes to league negotiations.
“When FIBS and the club owners sit down to discuss any changes to the leagues or any other decisions, the players are not represented, and I want to finally give them a seat at the table.”
In order to create credibility for the IBSPA, Massimiliano recruited his good friend and former MLB reliever Jason Grilli to join his executive staff.
Not only is Grilli involved in the organization, but former big leaguers like Chris Colabello, World Series champion Mike Napoli, and current MLB catcher Francisco Cervelli also have been involved in growing the organization.
The IBSPA GoFundMe page can be found here.
As for the 2020 season, I was very pleased to learn there will be baseball played in Italy this year.
“Little league started for the kids about two weeks ago, the A1 and A2 leagues started this week, and league B (which Livorno plays in) begins this weekend,” Geri told me over some text messages the other day.
With how badly Italy was hit by COVID-19 just a few short months ago, it should be celebrated that they are now in a position to return to playing sports at both the youth and professional levels.
As Massimiliano told me with a smile, “Italy does not love baseball, but there are many Italians here that do.”
And from the look of it, Italian baseball is only going to continue to grow thanks to the efforts of the IBSPA and people like Mr. Geri.
This will not be just a one-and-done interview, but an ongoing dialogue between myself and the folks in Italy in order to continue spreading awareness about all the great things happening in Italian baseball.
Forza Azzuri, and play ball!
For more information on the IBSPA, please email [email protected].
