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Fortitudo Baseball: the interview with Roberto Radaelli

The new guest of the column dedicated to the players who have made the history of UnipolSai Fortitudo baseball is the former pitcher and pitching coach, Roberto Radaelli. The Milanese pitcher, a native of Bollate, landed under the two towers in 1980 and wore the fortitudina jersey for the next 10 seasons, helping the Bolognese team to win the 1984 Scudetto and the 1985 Champions Cup. After returning to his hometown for 4 seasons (from 1990 to 1993), ” Rada ” returned to wearing the white and blue jersey from 1994 until his retirement, dragging the Bolognese team to victory in the 1997 Italian Cup as the starting pitcher of the decisive match. After his career as a player he was offered the role of pitching coach which he covered until 2019. If as a player he managed to win 3 titles, as a coach the palmares was much richer with 7 Italian titles, 4 Champions Cup, 8 Italian Cup and 1 Italian Super Cup.

In your first, ten-year, fortuitous experience, you won the 1984 championship and the following year’s Champions Cup. Do you think you could have won more or the titles won was the most that could be achieved?

Leaving aside the first year in which I was busy with military service, and therefore not assessable, that of 1981 was a team undergoing reconstruction with many young people. To the veterans Rinaldi and Luciani there were young people like Matteucci, Landuzzi and Giorgi who could already be considered level players and finally there were first-time athletes in the first team like Messori and Bianchi who then exploded writing pages and pages of the history of Italian baseball. . Thanks to the growth of young people and the explosion of Bianchi and Messori we were able to give our best from 83 to 85. After the defeat in the 1983 final, with unsportsmanlike episodes and rain, against Rimini, in 1984 we managed to redeem ourselves by winning the Italian title. The following season, however, we won the Champions Cup. After those 2 titles, however, we lacked something and from there, until 1989 when both Bianchi and I went to play in Milan, that group that had allowed us to rejoice in the 2 previously mentioned seasons was dissolved. We could probably have won more but for various problems, which I will not list so as not to harm anyone, we could have done more, especially at an Italian level. The biggest regrets remain the defeats with Rimini, in the final for the Italian title in 1983, and with Parma, in the final of the 1986 Champions Cup, which were within our reach. ”

In your second experience in Bologna instead?

” Regarding my second experience as a Bolognese player, which began in 1994, I found myself in a team renewed with the Under-side rule and which, with a masterpiece, reached, in the first year, the playoffs against all odds. . In the semifinal we met Parma, one of the strongest teams in history, and we managed to take them to Game 7 from which, however, we were defeated. I launched game 6 in Parma and finished with a complete game-shutout that I still remember pleasantly today. From the following season and in the following ones, however, there was a real decline culminating in the relegation to A2. In 1997 we won the A2 and at the same time we managed to take home the Italian Cup in a final against Parma, holder of the Italian and European title, thanks to a good team choral test with me on the mountain for 7 rounds and a group of young athletes who he managed to get the better of the more noble crusaders. From there to 2 years, the date on which I retired, however, things did not improve and pushed me towards retirement. Considering myself a person with a winning character, I no longer wanted to play and be part of a team that did not deserve to represent Bologna and Fortitudo which were, on the other hand, high-sounding names for what they had done in the history of Italian baseball. I probably could have played a couple of more years but the negative aspects surrounding the team at the time led me to retire.

As a manager you have won many titles, which do you remember with the most emotion? What, however, is the biggest regret?

” Thanks to the call from Mauro Mazzotti, whom I still thank today, who wanted me as the pitching coach of his Fortitudo, my career as a coach began. After a couple of years of adjustment, 6 extraordinary years have arrived, which began with the Italian title, in 2003, which had been missing in Bologna for 19 years. Thanks go to the Fortitudo company and to the sponsor of the time, Italeri, who fully embraced the new project. In the following years, many titles arrived. The most beautiful ones were certainly the first title as a coach, 2003, because bringing the Italian flag back to Bologna after 19 years was something magical, the 2009 title with Marco Nanni against a really strong San Marino, the 2016 title with Daniele Frignani which was that of the star and the 2019 Champions Cup, in front of your audience, where the Fortitudo company has demonstrated, with the work of its volunteers, that it can organize an event on a professional level. Regarding the European title, I still want to thank the president, the company, the sponsor UnipolSai and all those who contributed to the realization of the event because it was something magnificent. The competition saw us start with a defeat but then we managed to find the right match rhythm that allowed us to get the better of the 2 Dutch teams in the semifinals and final, being able to raise the cup in our stadium and in front of our fans. There are many regrets, like the 2007/2008 championships which saw us yield to a great San Marino, but they were matched by the many joys experienced. ”

In your opinion, which was the strongest white-blue formation in which you played and the one you coached?

” The strongest team I have played in is probably the one in 1984. The one in training, on the other hand, is very difficult to say as we have had so many top-level rosters. Probably the 2018 team was the strongest, with such an important lineup that Alessandro Vaglio beat 8th. Even that of 2009 I remember very strongly with a lineup that managed to beat, in the decisive race for the title, San Marino and Thiago Da Silva with 3 home runs. ”

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One Response

  1. I was a part of that 1984 championship team. Played 3rd base. A very solid team all around. Can’t believe it was 39 years ago. I enjoyed my time in Bologna and the other cities we played in. I’ll never forget that night when we won it all. The fans went crazy. I was presented with the Italian flag which flew in center field. Celebrated and didn’t sleep at all that nite. Truly a great bunch of guys and a memory I will never forget. After that season I decided to retire from baseball and return to America and move on from baseball.

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