However, if you are John Genzale, you can’t afford to kick back that much.  You see, Genzale is excited about a new venture — an expansion franchise in a city and region steeped in tradition, in a league showcasing an exciting new star and playing in a baseb-ball specific stadium named for an American president.  What could be more exciting about the national pastime than that?

Actually — everything.  Genzale’s new team is not in Queens, or Iowa or California or Texas.  It’s not in Mexico or Canada.  It is in Italy.

The veteran journalist now expatriate is taking his first real stab at team ownership with Milano United, a trailblazing expansion team in the Italian Baseball League, the oldest professional baseball league outside of Japan or the United States.

Now while it may seem quaint to try and run a team with all the details of baseball in a country which knows the game, Genzale’s approach is different from any professional sports venture on the continent.  Milano United will be the first-ever all commercial venture tried for sport in Europe, very much along the lines of what Americans understand as a professional sports franchise.

But how can this be, when there are such marketing powerhouses in soccer like Manchester United or Real Madrid in soccer, or the Springboks or All Blacks in Rugby, or even Maccabi Tel Aviv or Betteton Treviso in basketball?

“It’s different,” Genzale explains. “Yes, those are powerhouse marketing brands, but the business of sport side is run by a separate corporation away from the day to day in field running of the club.  The clubs of Europe are essentially that.  They are usually multisport local athletic organizations that feed a system from youth through the professional side. They are subsidized by the corporation to grow the game, but those two elements are separate in the way they do business.  We are going to try and be the first to unify what happens on the field with what happens in the business, just like American teams are run.”

To try and undertake such a venture, Genzale, who has a passion for both baseball and all things Italian, had to get the buy-in from the IBL, CONI (the governing body for sport in Italy which funds club-based development), the clubs that will feed into Milano United (there are four, including the oldest baseball club in Italy, Milano 1946), and the City of Milan, which owns the stadium where the team will play, aptly named John F. Kennedy Stadium in western Milan.

“It was and will be an education for all, but the IBL and those responsible for sport see the opportunity to change the model of clubs to help bring in more revenue, and baseball in Italy seems like the right place to give it a try,” he added. Genzale’s positive relationship with Major League Baseball, which helps run and grow the game around the globe, also helped make the vision of Milano United a reality.

Even with all the go-aheads, the launch this spring will not be an easy one, much like the launch of any expansion franchise Americans would understand. There are players to be found, rules to be followed, sponsorships to be sold and seats to be filled (JFK has about 2,500 seats in an all-baseball stadium for a season that will run from April to July). Educating brands on the value of sponsorship and promotion is not an easy thing in Italy either.

“Companies here know baseball and know sponsorship, but they don’t yet fully understand how we can use sponsorship to promote and grow their business,” Genzale added. “So with no track record for ROI, it is slow going to get brands to spend money with us, but it is coming along.”

John Genzale

The promotions Genzale envisions will be very American, like those you see in the minors and the majors in North America, and ones he feels will be readily accepted.

“It is a culture thing, but yes I see the day where the fun promotions that enhance the game experience here for fans will be accepted, because they are fun and give people a reason to come back time and again. We want it to be fun and educational, as well as it being good baseball.”

The baseball side will also have its challenges, but those will be ones Genzale will have some solid help with.  He has enlisted ex Major League outfielder Mike Marshall as his manager, and is looking at a number of former MLB players as a coach, including former Indians and Rays pitcher Albie Lopez. Marshall, who spent 11 years in MLB with the Dodgers, Mets, and Red Sox and helped LA win the 1988 World Championship, had left baseball after his retirement, but returned to manage Indy League franchises in Albany, El Paso and most recently Yuma of the Golden League last year. He was recommended to Genzale by baseball officials in the United States, and will make the trek to Italy with his wife in early 2012 as the start of a new adventure in a sport he loves.

“Pete Caliendo (a fellow Illinois native who has run baseball development programs all over the globe) worked with me with Schaumburg (Ill.) Flyers and knew John and what he was trying to do, and thought we would be a good fit,” Marshall added. “We talked and found our passions and interests were similar, so now we are excited to see how we can make this work.”

“We are now empty nesters with our kids in college, and I love the chance to experience and grow baseball in a place like Italy,” Marshall added. “I know it’s going to be a challenge dealing with the rule nuances and who we can have on the field at a certain time, but the level of play is what I have seen in the Independent leagues and it is what I love doing, working with a mix of veterans and young guys to grow and be successful as a team. That’s no different in Italy as it is in the states, and it will be a worthwhile and fun cultural challenge.”

Baseball has been part of Italian culture for decades, since the mark of the game was implanted by American GI’s during World War II. The game has been played professionally by a mix of home-grown club talent and Americans for about the same amount of time, with elite clubs in places like Nettuno, Bologna and Parma achieving success on the field and followings off the field for years.  Milan was a hotbed of baseball for a time, with one of the oldest clubs in the country, Milano 1946, leading the way. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owned the club at one point, according to Genzale, although his sport passion was much more tied to “calcio” (soccer) and AC Milan than what went on between the foul lines in baseball.  Milano United will actually unify four area clubs as one, giving Marshall and company a larger pool to pick from when selecting his team for the inaugural season.

That depth, along with the support of Italian rocker and baseball fan Nicola Fasano, known as “Faso” to music fans, will help get MU off to a good start come opening day. Faso, according to Genzale, has agreed to play a series of concerts during the season around home games, which will help boost attendance and promotion.

“Our goals for year one are modest,” he added. “We want to draw about 800 a night and 1,200 for bigger games, and let people and our sponsors have a good time. Faso will help us fill some other dates and bring people back, which will show even more how much fun baseball as entertainment can be.”

The attempt by Milano United to run a true commercial sports venture comes at an interesting time not just for baseball, but for the club system in Italy and all of Europe. On the baseball side, the growth of the World Baseball Classic and increased interest at the elite level by Major league Baseball has helped forge a higher level of home grown talent, most notably infielder Alex Liddi, who became the first native Italian to reach the Major leagues with the Seattle Mariners this past season.  However the downturn in the economy, and the fact that baseball is no longer on the Olympic programme, has seen a drastic downturn in funding at the club level. Effective commercial dollars and promotion could help ease the burden and keep baseball growing at a strong pace not just in Italy, but in other countries like The Netherlands and Germany, where the sport  also has deep roots.

“This is a long term plan with great potential, but we have to show value to brands and not look at their dollars like it’s a charity,” Genzale added. “It will be a big learning curve for all, but one that I think we can be successful at over time. It is exciting and daunting, which I guess makes it very worthwhile.”

Marshall, who also spent part of his professional career playing in Japan, agreed that the effort to grow the game in a foreign land, but one not foreign to baseball, will be an exciting next step.

“I think we will get that mix of players, veteran Italians, some Americans (although league rules limit the number of non-Italians on both field and roster), some young, some vets, who think they can and will be part of something special,” he said. “Sure there is an unknown, but John’s enthusiasm and the potential of helping grow the game will make it pretty worthwhile. It is a great game, Italy is an amazing culture, and we are proud to be a part of where it will lead us.”

Exactly where that will be will start to come together early in 2012, when Genzale, who already spends most of his year in Italy when he is not handling duties as co-director of Columbia University’s Graduate Sports Management Program, makes the full-time move to the Milan area to run the team. His wife Jenny will be a key part of the business success, as she has launched a company called Sports Marketing Italy, representing not just Milano United, but the IBL and other properties in sponsorship as well.

In the meantime, there are players to look at business conversations to be had, work visa to be worked out and a new business to be forged, which if it works, may make many give thanks for Milano United and its trailblazing and passionate owner.

That history varies in distinct ways from the Irish-Americans who preceded the Italians in the sport, and while the Italian-American influence on baseball was not as groundbreaking as that of the African-Americans and Latin players who followed, Italians looking to make their way into the game faced many of the same roadblocks and not-so-subtle prejudices that their parents experienced in everyday life.

In Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 520 pps.), Lawrence Baldassaro looks beyond the familiar stars like DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, giving long-forgotten players like Abbaticchio and Ping Bodie credit as the first significant players of Italian descent, while chronicling the lives of dozens of players, managers and executives, some more notable than others. Lazzeri joined the Yankees in the mid-1920′s, beginning a steady stream of Italians in Pinstripes for several decades.

The history of Italian immigration to the U.S. around the turn of the 20^th century and the ensuing attempts to assimilate – or in many cases, avoid doing so – is central to what can be seen as a delayed entry into the highest levels of the sport by an ethnic group that, from all accounts, enjoyed the game immensely, particularly in the second generation, which was more open to embracing American culture. A common refrain in Beyond DiMaggio is the reluctant parent not wanting their son to play, until they realized that they could make a better living through baseball than at their own jobs and trades. “Base-a-ball, what the hell is base-a-ball? You go to school.” was Phil Cavarretta‘s father Angelo’s command.

With interviews conducted by the author over the past decade and references to first-person accounts of the play and personalities of the older subjects, Baldassaro unearths colorful details such as the origin of Oscar “Spinach” Melillo‘s nickname and Sal Maglie‘s run-ins with his Mexican League pitching coach, former Big Leaguer Dolf Luque, which even included some gunplay. While the portrayals clearly accentuate the positive aspects of each player, the details gleaned from those interviews make the profiles both varied and thoroughly readable.

John Genzale, co-director of Columbia University’s sports management program and founding editor of SportsBusiness Journal, today announced that he has acquired majority interest in Milano United, an Italian professional baseball franchise created by four Milan-area teams, including Italy’s most historic professional club, Milan 1946. Milano United is established as Europe’s first fully commercial sports franchise and will begin competition in the Italian Baseball League in the spring of 2011. Genzale is an American who has Italian citizenship and lives a good part of the year in Umbria. Milan will become Italy’s largest baseball market.

“This will be both a great deal of fun and a great challenge, and maybe we have an opportunity to create a little history,” said Genzale. “With baseball’s expulsion from the Olympics, national funding for the development of the game has been drastically cut in Italy and elsewhere around the world and in some countries the growth of the game is jeopardized. We have to find a new way to support the game we love, and even though this is not a new idea elsewhere, it’s new here in Italy.”

“John and I have spent many hours discussing the path forward for baseball in Europe and I welcome his acquisition of a franchise. I look forward to closely following the path of Milano United,” said Clive Russell, Major League Baseball’s managing director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “We believe that with the right support from the political and business community that the club can become a central part of the city, building a strong fan base with a family focused entertainment option.”

Milano United was the vision of four Milan-area clubs: Milan 1946, Italy’s oldest professional team with the country’s most championships, and three successful clubs from communities in the market footprint: Novara, Rho and Senago. The four club-run organizations will continue to compete independently and serve as United’s minor-league affiliates. Novara becomes the No. 2 team in the five-team organization.

Marco Giulianelli, the president of Milan 1946 who engineered the creation of Milano United with Elia Pagnoni and Senago president Mario Colombo, said, “Genzale put together a plan for the development of baseball in Italy’s most commercial market. The four clubs believe in the vision of commercial baseball. This is an historic occasion for baseball in Milan and baseball in Italy.”

Josh is a former catcher on the British National Team and he has authored two books on baseball in Europe – “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History” and “British Baseball And the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London.”

Josh does a great job of explaining the current state of baseball in Europe – from the top leagues in Italy and Holland to countries where the sport is just taking hold, like Hungary and Ireland – click here to listen

Planet Hardball Podcast | Josh Chetwynd on the Top European Baseball Clubs

You can subscribe to the Planet Hardball Podcast on iTunes. Click here to check it out.

Italy played host to the semifinal and final rounds of the Baseball World Cup in 2009.

It might lack the grandeur of, say, the Colosseum, but the commitment to a stadium in Rome is a huge lift for the sport.

“I was enthusiastic when I had the chance to cooperate with IBAF during the World Cup and I am enthusiastic now, since I can announce that the Government of this City has officially committed to the building of this new facility,” said Alemanno.  “Rome doesn’t have a baseball stadium that can host international events and as a Mayor, I felt I had to fill this deficiency.”

The stadium will be built in Tor Vergata, just east of Rome.  “It’s not downtown Rome,” noted Alemanno, “but it’s an area where huge development is in progress.  The second University of Rome is based there and the new sports arena projected by Architect Calatrava will be soon completed.”

Rome and IBAF share the same Olympic dream, with Rome in the running for the 2020 Games.  The 2009 Baseball World Cup finals were held in nearby Nettuno.

Fraccari added that he will be “Supporter number one” of the project.

“I think that there can be an important cooperation between the city of Rome, IBAF and MLB,” said Fraccari.  “I expect the synergy effect to be really strong.”

Mayor Alemanno also stressed that the new facility will be important for Rome to host major events, but also to help the development of the game in the Eternal City.

“I am positive,” he said, “that baseball has a great potential in Rome.”

President Fraccari is one of the key people responsible for baseball’s growth in Europe. His initial work in baseball came as an umpire, learning the game and organizing local, regional and national events for over 30 years. He was eventually voted Italy’s top professional umpire and the top amateur umpire in the world and was inducted into the ABUA Hall of Fame in 2002. As a baseball officer President Fraccari served as vice president of FIBS under President Notari from 1985 to 2000 and as an umpire commissioner in Italy for over 20 years.

The Pisa, Italy, native was also president of the European Confederation Technical Commission and a member of the International Federation Technical Commission.

Italian Baseball has seen its biggest growth period internationally during Fraccari’s run as president, with a growing professional league and increased play for both able bodied and disabled children.  He was also a key organizer of the recently completed World Cup, which was played across Europe in September and ended with the United States defeating Cuba for the second consecutive time, this time before a sellout crowd in Nettuno, Italy.

We took a few minutes to conduct a brief Q&A with the new president:

BBD: What are the first things you would like to accomplish in office?
RF: We need to reinvent the structure of our Lausanne office, be more transparent and involve our member federations more on a day-to-day basis.  As an international federation we need to be more efficient and professional.  I will first learn what the current situation of the office is and will make necessary changes from there.

BBD: What are your feelings on the Olympics?
RF: We need to deeply analyze where we are on the Olympic landscape.  We cannot afford to invest money on a campaign to return to the Olympic Programme at this point.  What we need to do is to continue to strengthen our sport and federation, which will help prove to the IOC that it needs baseball back.

BBD: There has been a lot of talk with regard to funding.  Without government support, where do you think the best possible IBAF revenue streams will come from?
RF: It is critical that we quickly develop new streams of income for the federation.  We need the help of professional leagues and in general we need to make our product more attractive and valuable to investors, donors and sponsors.  We may need to transform our tournaments, for example, as well as introduce new events, like a World Championship featuring club teams from around the world..

BBD: What do you think the relationship will be with the professional leagues?
RF: This is easy to answer – it is extremely important for us to strengthen our relationship with the world’s professional leagues.  To this point, I am planning on offering representatives from some of the top professional leagues a position on our newly-formed Executive Committee.  They need us to help continue to develop players worldwide, and we certainly need their support both on and off the field.

BBD: There has been a good deal of talk with regard to developing women’s baseball.  Will you continue that growth and will you try and re-open talks with softball about working together?
RF: We will definitely continue to support women’s baseball, from the grassroots level to the Women’s Baseball World Cup.  We will also try to convince softball that our only chance to the return to the Olympic Programme is through a combined bid.  We need to illustrate to softball’s leaders that it was a mistake for them to call for their member federations to split with baseball.

BBD: Where do you think the biggest growth areas for baseball are?
RF: As evidenced by our bringing the 2009 Baseball World Cup to Europe we believe that the continent is certainly an area with room for significant growth.  Looking at Europe ’s market, economy and number of interested players, we believe that the opportunity is there..  Africa is another area where we think baseball has a bright future, and we look forward to exploring that and assisting with its efforts.

BBD: What do you think the biggest challenges are?
RF: The biggest challenge, again, is changing the identity of the federation.  We need to restructure, cut expenses and grow our income through a strengthened relationship with the world’s professional leagues.  We also look forward to continuing the ongoing challenge of growing the game of baseball around the world and helping educate players on our sport at a young age and on a grassroots level.