Baseball loses a giant. He’s gone Alberto Mazzantiwho friends called ‘Chessman’. Baseball player, manager, president. It would be reductive, however, to talk only about Alberto as a sportsman, because he was active in the world of volunteeringin associations, in the Anpi and, for the municipality of Casalecchio, he had been president of the Sports Council, of the municipal council and councilor for sport and tourism, confirming a life spent for others.
For the beat and run, however, it was love at first sight. Born in Bologna on 5 December 1942, he started playing baseball at 15, playing for the Acli Tigers Bologna. He liked racing on the diamond, but he understood that he would probably have been more useful and decisive – he who knew how to put himself at the service of others like few others – as a manager. Gianfranco Civolani, himself, the Civ, wants him as deputy in Fortitudo – Civola is the general manager -, Alberto collects successes.
Three championships in 1974, 1978 and 1984; two European Cups, 1973 and 1985 and two Italian Cups, 1973 and 1982.
It’s difficult to capture the enthusiasm of ‘Chessman’ who, not surprisingly, lands in the national team, finding himself working for federbaseball. He is a friend of Alfredo Meli and, with him, he takes a giant step forward. If Alfredo is the one who invented the baseball for the blindAlberto is the man who, once Meli disappears, receives the baton. And he carries on his battle with enthusiasm. Baseball for the blind appears in Italy, the number of teams is growing, hand in hand with the passion. In 2010 he became president of the Italian baseball for the blind association, contributing to the growth of the League (baseball for the blind). But Italy and the Bel Paese are still little to him. If Alfredo Meli is the pioneer of this version of bat and run, ‘Chessman’ goes even further. He would like to see baseball for the blind added to the sports program paralympics.
A concrete man, Alberto knows that to get to the Games it is necessary for sport to be practiced on as many continents as possible. And then with painstaking patience, flanked by equally charismatic characters – from the late Umberto Calzolari to Stefano Malaguti to Eva Trevisan – he travels the world.
The dream, in fact, is to see one of his creations at the Games. Alberto, who leaves behind his wife Clara Degli Esposti, did not have time to reap the fruits of his work.
But one day, when baseball for the blind enters (because sooner or later it will) into the Paralympic program, we will have to remember a giant called Alberto Mazzanti. Who today is mourned and remembered by the mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore, by the sports councilor Roberta Li Calzi, by the mayor of Casalecchio Matteo Ruggeri, by Fibs, by Fortitudo and by all those friends who, in these years, he had been able to involve and enthuse.
Hi Alberto.
