The European Baseball Coaches Association (EBCA) awarded longtime Italian National Team manager Marco Mazzieri with the 2017 EBCA Career Achievement Award. The award was presented to Mazzieri on Friday evening, as the EBCA Convention in Antwerp, Belgium got kicked off. He is the second Italian after Giuseppe Guilizzoni in 2004 to get awarded with the Career Achievement Award by the EBCA.
Mazzieri took over the manager post for the Italian National Team following a disastrous European Championship in 2007. With his leadership Italy won the 2010 and 2012 European Championships and did well in three World Baseball Classics since then. Prior to this year’s WBC it was announced that he will conclude his time as Italy’s manager following the tournament. Gilberto Gerali was later appointed as his successor.
Previous Winners:
- 2004: Giuseppe Guilizoni (ITA)
- 2005: Robert Eenhoorn (NED)
- 2006: Jim Jones (USA)
- 2007: Tony Klarberg (SWE)
- 2008: Tom O’Connell (USA)
- 2009: Clive Russell (USA)
- 2010: Georg Bull (GER)
- 2011: Sam Dempster (CAN)
- 2012: Claus Helmig (GER)
- 2013: Bill Acre (USA)
- 2014: Pat Doyle (USA)
- 2015: Bill Holmberg (USA)
- 2016: Jan Bagin (CZE)