25.07.06.- This evening at 8.35 p.m. the President of the International Baseball Federation, Aldo Notari, passed away unexpectedly after suffering a serious setback in the illness that had confined him to hospital over the last few days. He is survived by two daughters, Sabrina and Cristina.

He was born in Parma on 6 September 1932 and began his Baseball career as a player, opening Italy’s major championships with his home team, Parma, in 1950. At the end of the 1964 season he left the playing field to concentrate on the management role he first took up in 1952, overseeing the technical and administrative aspects of the Parma team.

His long and productive career was marked by his love for the sport, combined with a thorough technical understanding. In 1969 he was elected President of the Club, a position which he held continuously until 1985, when he became President of the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation, FIBS. He retired from this position in 2001. Throughout his long presidency of Parma, Notari showed himself to be a pioneering leader, succeeding in combining high-level sponsorship with exceptional technical results.

During this period, Parma won four national titles and six European Champions’ Cups. At the same time, his career with the Italian Federation took him further into the fields of technical management and international relations.

From 1969 to 1984 he was vice-president of the FIBS, in 1972 he joined the technical commission of the European Baseball Confederation, CEB, in the same year presenting plans for a new competition, the “Intercontinental Cup”, to be held in alternate years with the World Championships, to promote the development of international Baseball. In 1976 he joined the legal commission of the International Federation, and the following year became a member of the technical commission, a position he kept until 1984, when he was elected to the vice-presidency.

In 1987 he was elected President of the European Baseball Confederation, not retiring until 2005. His abilities earned him recognition outside Baseball circles: he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Olympic Committee from 1985 to 2001, and at the time of his death was also a member of the ASOIF Council, a position he had previously held from 1995 to 1999.

In 1993, at the Rome Congress, he was elected President of the IBAF. He was subsequently re-elected at the Congresses in Pamplona in 1997 and Lausanne in 2001 and 2005. In 2002 he was awarded the Olympic Order in recognition of his dedication and perseverance in securing Baseball a place on the Olympic programme.

The entire International Baseball community, the Olympic family, and legions of Baseball fans join in offering their condolences to Aldo Notari’s family.