(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Player Michele Romano and Umpire Marco Screti inducted into Italian Hall of Fame
Nederlands
 RIMINI (Italy) -
After a delay of some years, longtime and legendary player/coach Michele 'Mike' Romano and longtime (international) baseball-umpire Marco Screti were officially inducted into the Italian Baseball & Softball Hall of Fame on Saturday (January 25).
Both Romano and Screti were already elected in January 2021.
However, due to circumstances, which included the then ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, their inductions were postponed a few times.
Until now.
The induction-ceremony took place on Day 2 of the three-day CON-X 2025, the tenth annual Convention of the Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball (FIBS).
The Convention brings together coaches, umpires, scorekeepers, athletes, managers, administrators and enthusiasts to discuss with Italian and international speakers the latest news, strategies and developments to the disciplines.
The Convention (January 24-26) was held for the fourth time in the Palacongressi in Rimini, which happens to be the home-town of Romano for many years.
...Michele Romano as player of...
...Rimini during Italian Championship...
...Series in 1993...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Michael (Mike) Romano was born in Swindon (England, United Kingdom, halfway London and Bristol) - where his father was stationed as NATO-officer - but he grew up in the New York-area in the USA, where he attended college.
At age 19 in 1973, Romano made his debut in the highest Italian league (Serie A), playing for Pirati dei Rimini as short stop and pitcher.
After not having played in Italy in 1974, Romano returned in 1975 to Rimini, with whom he then captured the Championship-title.
From that moment on, he was active for Rimini for almost 40 years and became known as Michele Romano.
He would play in 25 seasons for Rimini, playing his final (and lone) game (as pitcher) during the 1998 season at age 45.
In 1993, he moved from short stop to third base, while remaining one of the regular pitchers of the team.
In 1976, Romano was named Most Valuable Player.
In his long career, Romano played in 1,047 games, hitting .291 with 100 homeruns.
As pitcher, he was 95-33 with a 2.28 ERA and 1,331 strikeouts.
As player, Romano captured the Italian title seven times with Rimini and won the European Cup three times.
As his grandparents came from Italy, Romano was eligible to play for the Italian National Team.
And so, from 1975 on, he became one of the so-called Ital-American players, who were born and grew up in the USA, but had an Italian background.
Romano played for the Italian-squad through 1984 and participated in that year in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles (USA).
Romano also participated in three World Championships in 1978 (in Italy), 1980 (in Japan) and 1982 (in South Korea), the Intercontinental Cup in 1975 (in Canada) and five European Championships in 1975 (in Spain), 1977 (in the Netherlands), 1979 (in Italy), 1981 (in the Netherlands) and 1983 (in Italy).
In four of these European Championships (except 1981), Italy captured the title.
Overall, Romano played in 52 games for the Azzurri.
From 1998 on, Miichele Romano was Coach or Manager of Rimini for fourteen seasons (through 2011), winning the Italian Championship-title four times (1999, 2000, 2002, 2006).
After the 1997 season, Romano became the new Manager, succeeding Mauro Mazzotti, who returned in 1999 with Romano as coach.
Romano then was Manager from 2000 through 2008.
Mazzotti returned again in 2009 (through 2011) as Manager, while Romano remained a member of the coaching-staff.
In 2012 and 2013, Romano was Manager of Novara, followed by seven seasons (2014-2020) as Manager of Serie C-club Rimini 86.
Just before the 2019 season, Pirati di Rimini withdraw its team from Serie A, due to financial reasons.
Rimini returned in the highest league as New Rimini in 2021 with Romano being the Manager agaiin.
He also led the team in 2022.
...Marco Screti in 2001 as umpire with Jan Esselman...
...(member technical commission IBAF) during the...
...World Championship in Taipei (Taiwan)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Nettuno-born Marco Screti began his umpiring career in 1983, immediately showed talent and made his debut in the highest league five years later (1988).
In his long career, Screti officiated in 857 games at the national level.
As an international umpire since 1993, Screti was assigned to several events, including the Olympic Games in 2004 (Athens, Greece), the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in 2013 (Regensburg, Germany), three World Championships in 2001 (in Taipei, Taiwan), in 2009 (in Netherlands and Italy) and 2011 (in Panama), Intercontinental Cup in 1999 (in Sydney, Australia), two European Championship in 2001 (in Germany) and 2007 (in Barcelona-region, Spain) and the World Junior Championship 2010 (in Thunder Bay, Canada) plus several European Cup-tournaments.
As an instructor, Marco Screti conducted umpiring clinics.
Not only in Italy, but also in France, Ireland, Malta and Spain and even in Hong Kong, San Jose (California, USA) and Phillippine capital Manila.
During his active career, in 2011, Screti became an umpire commissioner of the International BAseball Federation (IBAF), which merged with the International Softball Federation (ISF) in 2014 to become the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
Screti remained umpire commissioner through 2017.
During his career, Screti won the Enrico Spocci Award (for best international umpire) and Angelo Cerrai Award, which are handed out to distinguished Italian umpires.
These awards are named after two longtime, wellknown and respected Italian umpires,
Enrico Spocci (who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007) was one of the best young international umpires.
Despite being already seriously ill, he was one of the umpires during the 1981 European Championship in Haarlem (Netherlands).
A year later, Spocci passed away at the much too young age of 35.
(January 25)
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