Baseball in Italy started at the end of WW2, in 1945, when American troops came to Italy to help us get rid of the Nazis. Though known by most as the site of a great WWII battle, the American cemetery in Anzio is also the birth place of baseball in Italy.  American soldiers would recruit local youths to aid in the burial details and then teach them to play baseball on their breaks. They taught Italian kids how to play the game, played some in front of Italian people, and the seed was sown. The first Italian League Tournament was held in 1948, and Bologna won it. Teams with a good tradition for baseball are in the following towns: Nettuno, Bologna, Parma, Milan, Rimini and Grosseto.

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