This upcoming weekend the congress of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland. On Sunday the elections for the executive committee will take place. The current president of the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation (FIBS), Riccardo Fraccari, and the secretary general of the IBAF, John C. Ostermeyer, are the candidates to succeed President Dr. Harvey Schiller at the top of the IBAF. Today we want to introduce both candidates by looking at their biographies. Tomorrow we are taking a look at the programs of both candidates.
John C. Ostermeyer
John C. Ostermeyer was born on February 18, 1947 in the Netherlands. After spending his childhood in the Netherlands and Indonesia his family migrated 1957 to Australia. He has a Dutch and Australian citizenship. He studied Economics and Law at the Australian National University in 1973. Afterwards he worked in different companies until retiring in 2001 to concentrate on Baseball.
The former Australian-Rules Football player Ostermeyer began his executive career as an executive director/adviser for the Australian Basketball League, Australian/Victorian Little Athletics Association, Australian Fencing Federation, Australian Table Tennis Association, Australian Volleyball Federation and Australian Baseball Federation. He also was involved in organizing 15 international events in Baseball, Volleyball, Fencing and Table Tennis.
Starting in the early 1990ies Ostermeyer got more and more involved in Baseball and became secretary general of the Baseball Confederation of Oceania in 1991 (until 2001). In 1997 he also took the same role with the International Baseball Federation (until 2001) and again was the secretary general between 2007 and 2009. From 2001 to 2005 and 2005 to 2009 he was elected as president of the Baseball Confederation of Oceania.
Riccardo Fraccari
Riccardo Fraccari was born 1949 in Pisa, Italy. He worked as a professor in Bio-Chemistry at the University of Pisa. He later became one of the most famous Italian Umpires. He started in the national leagues in 1975 and was approved as International Umpire two years later. First highlights in his career were the European Championships in 1977 and 1981.
Fraccari officiated the finals at the 1982 Baseball World Cup in Korea and was named best Umpire of the tournament. During the finals of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles he was behind home plate. He again was voted best Umpire during the Baseball World Cup 1984 in Cuba and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. In 2001 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Amateur Baseball Umpire Association.
Fraccari served as Vice President of the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation (FIBS) under President Aldo Notari from 1985 and 2000. He also was Umpire Commissioner in Italy, President of the Technical Commission of the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) and a member of the Technical Commission of the IBAF. In December 2001 he was elected FIBS President and confirmed for a third consecutive term twelve months ago. In 2005 he became Vice President of the CEB. He also is the reigning Continental Vice President for Europe at the IBAF under Dr. Harvey Schiller.