ROME – World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari and Mexican Baseball League (LMB) CEO Javier Salinas met in Rome. It was the first-ever official meeting between the two bodies.
The vision of Javier Salinas about helping the fan to “live a baseball game in a special way” is shared by WBSC President Fraccari.
“I was very impressed by the bold and ambitious strategy in communications that LMB has,” said Fraccari. “Our two organisations have mutual interests and working together would be of mutual benefit, such as showcasing the LMB brand and LMB players globally and in WBSC’s top-tier international competitions.”
Speaking in English, Javier Salinas told the WBSC: “I have been the CEO of LMB for 10 months now, and I thought it was time to meet the President of WBSC. There’s no global development of baseball if professional leagues don’t work together with the World Confederation.”
The leader of Mexico’s top-tier professional baseball league was actually a successful marketing director in the soccer (fútbol in Mexico) national league (Primera División) prior to leading the LMB, which drew over 4 million fans to its stadiums in 2017.
Salinas received his degree in Communications at the Universidad Latina de Amèrica (Morelia, Michoacan) and attended a Master in Sports Management at Johann Cruyff University (Mexico City).
“I have been a baseball fan since I can remember,” Salinas said upon first becoming LMB CEO.
During the six-hour meeting in Rome, Fraccari and Salinas touched on development plans, and expanded upon the participation of top players in international events and business opportunities. At the end they agreed that this meeting only served as a preparation for future collaboration.
WBSC has over 140 members. This includes National Federations, Professional Leagues, Youth Leagues and multi-sport USSSA.
Mexico is number 5, highest position ever, in WBSC Baseball World Rankings.
The sport press in Mexico described the meeting as “historic”.
