The Milano Baseball Club 1946 is a professional baseball team that plays in the Italian Baseball League, based in the city of Milan. It is the oldest baseball club in Italy still in existence, and the only one to play in the country's first national championship in 1948.
A successful team in the Serie A1, Milano won eight championship titles in a span of 13 seasons, 1958; from 1960 through 1962; from 1966 to 1968 and 1970, all under manager Luigi Cameroni. Besides, Milano won three straight European Cups from 1969 to 1971.
During their existence, the Milano club produced two of the four batting Triple Crown winners in Italian baseball history – Roberto Gandini in 1962 and Roberto Bianchi in 1991.Due campionissimi alla Festa dei 70 anni del Milano – Milano Baseball 1946. Facebook. (Italian).
History Milano BC was one of the first baseball clubs founded after the introduction of baseball to Italy in the aftermath of World War II. The team partiicpated in the first official game of the nascent Italian Baseball League on June 27, 1948, a crosstown derby against the rival Yankees Inter; the game, played at the Giuriati Field in front of 3,000 spectators, was ended in a tie score of 21-21 tie. The team was first managed by , a former American serviceman who remained in Italy after the war.
The team inaugurated its home ballpark, the Stadio J.F. Kennedy, in 1964; the stadium was nicknamed the "La Scala of baseball." Milano 46 dominated the Italian league in the late 1960s; playing under the name Europhon, the team won won three European Cups in a row in 1969, 1970 and 1971. This team was headliend by star .
The club then entered a period of struggle and suffered several "self-relegations" to lower tier divisions for financial reasons. The club returned to glory in the early 1990s after merging with Polisportiva Mediolanum, winning two more Italian Cups (1990 and 1991), two Cup Winners' Cups (1991 and 1992), and a European Super Cup. After the Mediolanum era, the club fortunes again declined, and it fell out of the top division in 1998.
In 2009, the club merged with to form Senago Milano United, a team which itself served as the secondary farm team for Novara BC. The goal was to secure a franchise in the abortive reorganization of Italian baseball by Major League Baseball in 2010, which briefly did away with promotion and relegation in favor of a closed league model. The combined team reached the playoff semi-finals in 2010, a season in which they also won the Italian Cup in their category against Reggio Emilia. The combined team dissolved in 2016.
Milano BC 1946 finally returned to top-flight baseball in 2021, after a promotion from third-division Serie B to second-division Serie A2 coincided with the expansion of Serie A. The team also made strides in its youth academy, one of the largest in Italy, with Nicolò Pinazzi becoming the first Milano prospect to sign with a Major League club (the Cincinnati Reds). The team was relegated, but returned to the top-flight of Serie A in 2024.
Seasons Milano BC 1946 top-flight record Season Finish Postseason Manager 1948 2nd Max Ott 1949 3rd Ferdinando Zerbini 1950 4th Ferdinando Zerbini 1951 7th Ferdinando Zerbini 1952 8th Alfio D'Aprile 1953 7th Alfio D'Aprile 1954 6th 1955 8th Relegated to A2 Elliott Van Zandt 1958 1st Won championship Elliott Van Zandt / Andrea Balzani / 1959 3rd Luigi Cameroni 1960 1st Won championship Luigi Cameroni 1961 1st Won championship Luigi Cameroni 1962 1st Won championship Luigi Cameroni 1963 2nd Luigi Cameroni 1964 7th Luigi Cameroni 1965 2nd Luigi Cameroni 1966 1st Won championship Luigi Cameroni 1967 1st Won championship and Coppa Italia Luigi Cameroni 1968 1st Won championship Luigi Cameroni 1969 4th 4th in European Cup Luigi Cameroni 1970 1st Won championship and European Cup Luigi Cameroni 1971 4th 4th in European Cup Luigi Cameroni 1972 8th Alberto Spinosa 1973 4th Dave Phares 1974 3rd Dave Phares 1975 7th Relegated to A2 Dave Phares 1979 7th Luigi Cameroni / Ennio Paganelli /Carlo Passarotto ( 1980 5th Relegated to B Carlo Passarotto / Giulio Sueri 1983 7th Carlo Passarotto 1984 5th Relegated to A2 Carlo Passarotto 1986 5th Ciccio Roda 1987 7th Ciccio Roda / 1988 7th Mauro Mazzotti 1989 11th Mauro Mazzotti 1990 4th 4th in Coppa Italia Mauro Mazzotti 1991 4th 4th in Coppa Italia and Cup Winners' Cup Mauro Mazzotti 1992 4th 4th in Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup Mauro Mazzotti 1993 5th Relegated to C2 Mauro Mazzotti 1998 7th Relegated to B Mauro Mazzotti 2021 6th Relegated to B Marco Fraschetti 2024 4th Marco Fraschetti 2025 2nd Eliminated in round of 16 of playoffs Marco Fraschetti
References
External links A.S.D. Milano Baseball 1946