Sante De Franceschi

Sante De Franceschi was an icon of the baseball refereeing sector with over 2,000 games in the Italian championships during his long career.

Born in Nettuno, the home of Italian baseball, De Franceschi began his refereeing career in 1964 and was appointed an international referee in 1973. He had officiated in numerous World and European Baseball Championships, as well as the first Intercontinental Cup in 1973. Internationally, the pinnacle of De Franceschi’s career was the 1992 Barcelona Olympics where he served as home plate umpire in the semi-final between Cuba and United States, amongst other games. In 2008 De Franceschi was named best European referee and, once he hung up his strike counter in 2010, was named president of the CAN (Italian referee’s committee), holding the role until the end of the four-year Olympic period in 2012.