US to reinvigorate baseball in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. yesterday pitched for “baseball diplomacy” that he said would help the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) reinvigorate baseball in the country over the next few years.

In a chance interview at the Smokey Mountain Little League baseball tournament at the “Field of Dreams” in Tondo, Manila, Thomas said he learned from the PSC that baseball equipment are the commission’s greatest need.

“We have a whole plan to help the PSC reinvigorate baseball in the Philippines over the next few years. And that is through providing and helping through the right clinics, clinics to come and equipment of what we call baseball diplomacy... as you can see, look at these kids with various background playing together, playing hard, clean baseball, so we want to help the PSC,” Thomas told The STAR.

He lauded Gawad Kalinga (GK) and the Junior Chamber of Commerce International’s Manila Chapter (JCI-Manila) for organizing the tournament and supporting the players from Tondo.

The game was part of the regular baseball season of Little League Philippines that marked the face-off of the boys’ teams from two chapters - the Smokey Mountain Little League Chapter and the International Little League Association of Manila.

As a way to promote his favorite sport, Thomas participated as honorary coach of the Smokey Mountain team.

“It will mean nothing if we are not able to provide equipment, training and assistance so that’s what we’re gonna do in partnership obviously with PSC and the JC,” he said.

The Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation aims to upgrade its Field of Dreams located in one of its communities in Paradise Heights, Tondo that used to be a former dump called Smokey Mountain.

In 2006, Gawad Kalinga conducted education programs for the children who were mostly engaged in street gangs and illegal drugs.

The GK team cleared away a mountain of garbage in an open field and started reaching out to the youth by conducting sports activities such as softball and baseball.

Today, the former dump now serves as sports facility for GK’s baseball/softball and football programs. Some of the children in these programs have gone on to use sports to secure athletic scholarships for college.

GK, in partnership with the JCI-Manila, built a proper baseball field for the site. A football field was also constructed adjacent to the baseball field for the site’s football program.

Thomas earlier had said that apart from eating hotdogs on a New York sidewalk, President Aquino should watch a New York Mets game in his next visit to the Big Apple.