Manager Fraschetti with Milan’s new arrivals (from left Pasotto, Cueto, Dall’Agnese and Garavaglia)
© Milano Baseball 1946
Back in Serie A. Three years have passed since the last, fleeting appearance and Milan are back at the start with a team not very different from the one last time, but with a little more experience in their baggage. And with the hope that the group of young people who faced that taste of the first series of 2021 has matured in the meantime. Above all through a B championship like last year’s, always conducted at the top, until the final promotion won without defeat. Indeed, the Milan of the confirmed Marco Fraschetti (in his eighth season as manager: equaled by a great like Mauro Mazzotti) arrives at the start of the championship strong on a streak of 15 consecutive victories which in the history of the club is the fifth ever.
The 23 year old winger Andrea Pasotto, son and grandson of art
The restart in the major series will not be easy, even if the initial group with Settimo Torinese, Verona, Collecchio, Poviglio and Modena will serve more than anything as a test in view of the second phase, presumably in the salvation pool, which will be decisive. However, the valorisation of the young people of Milan and the territory remains at the basis of the rossoblù philosophy. No upheaval of the squad after the promotion (the team remains centered on players who now have some experience such as captain Nicola B Ancora, Marco Pasotto, Luca Fraschetti, Massimo Sanguedolce, Giacomo Fraulini, Milan’s best batsman in 2023, Lorenzo Ambrosioni, Andrea Capellano and the Venezuelan Angelo Torrellas), but rather the search for talents in Lombardy, such as Gabriel Dall’Agnese, a 24-year-old pitcher from Bergamo who in recent seasons has played with good results in Serie B for Piacenza. With Dall’Agnese, two other youngsters who grew up in our academy, but have come back from experiences in other clubs, have returned: Andrea Pasotto, also 23 years old, winger, son and grandson of art (of our director Raoul and coach Thomas ), who joins his brother Marco and cousin Samuele, and of Alessandro Garavaglia, catcher-third base, another very young boy (16 years old in May) who comes with a family of baseball tradition behind him, if we consider that his father Roberto and his uncle Osvaldo played for the rossoblù in the 1980s and his grandfather Mario was responsible for the youth sector for years. Andrea Pasotto returns from an unlucky experience at Parma, which culminated in a wrist injury from which he is recovering, while Garavaglia last year went to gain experience at Seveso with which he made his debut in Serie B.
Cuban pitcher Randy Nieto
The picture of the new arrivals is completed by the Cuban pitcher Randy Cueto Perez, also born in 2001, coming from three good seasons in the Cuban Liga Nacional with the Santa Clara team. Cueto was also an Under 23 national team, with whom he participated in the World Championships and the Panamerican Championships. He will be the spearhead of a pitching team that also includes the veteran Mattia Varalda, Milan’s best pitcher in 2023, Davide Pizzi, Dalberto Polo and Alessandro Persico. Cueto is the sixth Cuban player in the history of Milan (Conrado Silva and Ernesto Wong, who tragically passed away in recent days, the most present at the time of the United franchise), but the first to arrive directly in Italy from the Caribbean championship, after it was granted the possibility of playing abroad for the island’s athletes.
Milan is in the 77th championship of its history (the only Italian team to be able to boast such a long-lasting activity), the 41st at first series level. The rossoblù arrive with a precise balance of 2,400 games played from 1948 to today, of which 1302 in Serie A1. The victories are 1412 with 985 defeats and 3 draws. One of the objectives of Fraschetti’s team will therefore be to avoid the thousandth knockout.
Of the five teams included in group B, Collecchio is the one faced the most times (43) with an extremely balanced balance sheet of 22 victories and 21 defeats, only one match ahead of Verona (42) with whom however the balance sheet is better (28 at 14). 14 comparisons with Poviglio and Settimo Torinese, only 8 with Modena. Verona is the team with which there is the oldest tradition (first meeting in 1960) but also the one that has not been faced for the longest time (2011). Overall, the team met the most times is Parma (131 matches) ahead of Nettuno (122) and Fortitudo Bologna (109).
The player with the most appearances for Milan is Ivan Guerci (718 games for the rossoblù) ahead of Piero Allara (644), while Andrea Lo Monaco, who holds the role of player-coach, is the active rossoblù with the most appearances (223; 27th all time among the Milan faithful). Roberto Bianchi is the striker with the most home runs (49), while among the active rossoblù Marco Pasotto and Angelo Torrellas have scored two. Among pitchers, the highest number of shots thrown is held by Carlo Passarotto (1112.1), while Davide Pizzi is the active record holder (223.1).
Angelo Torrellas defending the first base cushion
YOUTH ACTIVITY – This year too, Milan is among the top Italian clubs in terms of overall number of members, around 220, of which 170 are under 18 years of age. A figure that allows 8 youth teams to be entered in the championships of all categories, both male and female. Among these is the pre-competitive minibaseball group which includes around 40 children aged 5 and up.
Working on this large group of guys are mainly three Cuban technicians. Carlos Franco Cruz is the longest-serving of the group, having arrived at Milan in 2010 after an experience at Cervignano, who in addition to being coach of the first team, is in charge of the Under 12 sector. The Under 18 and Under 15 sectors are instead entrusted to Jose Luis Cueto, the neophyte of the technical group, arrived in Italy this year for the first time together with his son Randy, pitcher for the first team. The softball sector is instead entrusted for the third year to Rayner Ramirez who is positively developing the women’s activity which until a few years ago was entrusted solely to Italian coaches.
A choice, that of the three Cuban coaches, also dictated by the difficulties in finding coaches in Lombardy, but combined with the full awareness that, at least at a youth level, the Cuban school still remains at the forefront. And it is no coincidence that Milan has relied on technicians who come from experience at the Cuban youth national team level.
KENNEDY’S 60 YEARS – The tormented history of the camp continues, even if the times of the ongoing works are truly biblical. In a few days the Municipality should finally complete the renovation of the large changing rooms, as regards the plumbing and heating part. The work lasted two years but should finally allow us to return to using these premises which have been out of use since 2008. A small step forward towards what should be the future use of the Kennedy, with the organization of some important events. However, the stadium still incredibly lacks an adequate scoreboard, necessary to fully follow the matches. Especially at Serie A level. However, a second batch of works should start by the end of the year which will include the renovation of the stands, the dugouts and, indeed, the scoreboard.
An overview of the Kennedy stadium in Milan
In the meantime, Milan is ensuring the best possible usability of the facility, trying to animate it with various events and initiatives. The club house in fact offers good hospitality and in this regard an appropriate celebration is being organized for Kennedy’s 60th birthday which will fall on August 29th, the anniversary of the opening match of the ’64 European Championships. In the first weekend of October we intend to organize two events: an amateur one on Saturday, with a tournament between the consular representatives of the countries most similar to our sport, from the United States to Japan, from Venezuela to Mexico, to Cuba; and a competitive one with a celebration match to be hosted on Sunday.
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2024-04-17 23:17:01
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