While the decisive board meeting will be held on Saturday, FIBS President Riccardo Fraccari revealed during a press conference in Milan that the Italian Baseball League 2013 will be played with ten teams (eight in 2012). Reggio Emilia (Mister-Baseball report from Thursday), Ronchi dei Legionari and Mastiff Arezzo (will play in Florence) are expected to join the IBL. Bologna, Rimini, San Marino, Nettuno, Novara, Godo and Parma will return, while Grosseto is not.
Additionally there will be changes to the format. There won’t be two divisions, but teams still only will play two instead of three games per week. In one of these two games a foreign born pitcher can be used. Also only three instead of four foreign players can be used in the starting lineup. These are good news for the IBL, which was down to seven teams after Grosseto’s withdrawal a couple of weeks ago.