The Italian Baseball League (IBL) 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 aluminum bat are prohibited; the official ball of the IBL is the Wilson 1010 Italy.
Until 2010, the IBL featured a league format that demoted and relegated 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 system starting with the 2010 season and thus will apply a fixed team franchise format similar to that found in Major League Baseball.
The current IBL consists of eight 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 Italian Baseball Series and compete for the championship, referred to as the Scudetto.
Read more about Italian Baseball League: IBL Players, 3-game Series Format, 2011 IBL Teams
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“Master of Trinity: Is he an Italian?
Harold Abrahams: Of Italian extraction, yes.
Master of Trinity: I see.
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Master of Trinity: I’m relieved to hear it.
Harold Abrahams: He’s half-Arab.”
—Colin Welland (b. 1934)
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—George Mitchell (b. 1933)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.