Gianni Battaglia, protagonist of 25 years of rossoblù history, has passed away at the age of 79. From founder of Sparks, a satellite company that looked after the youth sector, to administrative manager of Mediolanum. Then vice president and three times interim president in times of crisis. Although his last mandate lasted three years, before the company passed to Alessandro Selmi. He had the honor of receiving, under his presidency of Milan, the Coni Gold Star and the Ambrogino d’Oro
December 1989, the Mediolanum adventure begins and Mauro Mazzotti flies to Florida to sign the contract of the new shortstop Jim Morrison, a man with a thousand and one games in the Major League. Accompanying the manager is an executive who is still fairly new to baseball, but already infected with an incredible enthusiasm, who experiences the trip like a child at an amusement park. It will be, by his own admission, the most unforgettable moment of the entire adventure in Milan of Gianni Battaglia, former administrative manager, former vice-president, but above all former president of our club three times. Last night we lost this great friend, passionate, enthusiastic, someone who lived those years with the euphoria of a manager-fan, but was also able to face the following ones with the awareness that Milan had to hold on even amidst the difficulties.
A Bocconian accountant, he cared a lot about qualifying himself in this way, almost as much as he cared about his belonging to the Alpine troops. A tradition inherited from his father and proudly displayed every time he was able to participate in some gatherings. A true Inter fan, as his son Franco recalled on Facebook, announcing his passing, and a man of great sympathy, Gianni almost seemed like a character straight out of a “Milano da bere” film from the 1980s. He passed away at the age of 79 after spending the last few months in great suffering due to diabetes which slowly consumed him, also forcing him to undergo painful amputations. After the loss of his wife Delia he had effectively withdrawn from baseball, even though he remained faithful to the commitment made to the Board following the resignation of Marco Giulianelli in December 2011. Battaglia then accepted the position of president interim, as he had already done with a spirit of service in two other critical moments, in 1999 between the Burgazzi presidency and the merger with Ares, and again in 2003, when the two Milanese teams separated again and Battaglia led the transition towards the Giulianelli presidency. But in 2011 Gianni knew well that the interim risked becoming something very temporary and in fact he found himself occupying the uncomfortable chair of president for three seasons, in the midst of the United era, before passing the buck to Alessandro Selmi in assembly at the end of 2014 and finally enjoy some well-deserved rest.
In fact, in fact, Battaglia lived with Milan as a manager for almost 25 years, having fun like crazy in the good years of Mediolanum, when he dressed as a manager-fan-tourist on trips to Sweden, Holland or Spain, and tightening our belts together with everyone else when we had to pick up the pieces of the many subsequent crises. But it must be said that Gianni never lacked good humor together with that confusing essence of his that often made us worry, especially when he had to administer important things and perhaps you discovered that some document (and not only) had been lost among the thousand folders from his studio in Corso di Porta Romana, in front of the legendary Panarello, or which had simply been eaten by Osvaldo, the dachshund dog who also followed him at work.
Gianni Battaglia entered baseball in the 1980s, as many did because of his son who had started playing. But it must also be said because of his father-in-law, Piero Troiani, an old winger for Ambrosiana and also for Milan in the fifties, who had somewhat directed his nephew towards this sport. The fact is that his son Franco soon stopped playing, but Gianni had now caught the baseball bug and continued to be a rossoblù manager, after having founded the Sparks, a satellite team of Milan which took care of the youth sector. Eternally late and amiably distracted, loved by the players with whom he had a great relationship of sympathy, Gianni had now become a protagonist of our club, to the point – as mentioned – of becoming its president three times. And if his mandates inevitably coincided with moments of great crisis, they curiously gave him the opportunity to be the president destined to receive the two most important honors in our history: the Coni Gold Star in 2000 and the Ambrogino d’Oro in 2013. So much so that it was he who led the Milan delegation to the Dal Verme theater to collect the prestigious diploma from the hands of mayor Pisapia. The pinnacle of a quarter century dedicated to baseball.
Dear Gianni, now you can store the cap with the M next to the Alpine hat. Continuing to support Milan, wherever you are.
2023-11-24 16:34:59
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