Egidio Cerea

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born February 2, 1937

Biographical Information

Egidio Cerea was a member of the Italian national team in four different tournaments.

In the 1956 European Championship, the teenager was the starting catcher for the Italian national team. He was 0 for 5 with a walk, hit-by-pitch and run and handled 32 chances error-free for the third-place finishers. He was again the starting backstop in the 1957 European Championship, when Italy placed third; he was 1 for 9 with a walk and had 18 putouts.

Cerea moved to left field for the 1958 European Championship and hit .133/.316/.133 with 3 runs and one RBI in six games as Italy moved up to second. In the 1962 European Championship, he backed up Andrea Balzani in left for the runners-up and played one game but did not bat or handle a chance in the field.

From 1956-1967, Cerea hit .190/.341/.231 in 113 games in Italy's top league. He stole 40 bases in 49 tries, drew 76 walks, scored 87 runs and drove in 41. He played all over the field: .971 fielding in 42 games at C (opponents stole 89.5% of the time), 20 games at SS (.762), 17 in RF (7 PO, 0 E), 16 at 3B (.771), 14 at 2B (.864), 13 in LF (2 E, 4 TC) and 10 in CF (14 TC, 0 E), only not appearing at P or 1B.

He later was a regional president for the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation. His wife Aurelia Colombo was a star shortstop in softball.