POC denies Asiad stint for baseball

Don’t expect the Philippines to field a baseball team in the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, in September.

This was announced yesterday by RP delegation chef de mission Tom Carrasco, who was set to inform Philippine Amateur BAseball Association president Hector Navasero of the PABA’s failure to meet the strict criteria set by the Asian Games Task Force.

Under the criteria, only teams with at least a third-place finish in top-level tournaments in Southeast Asian, Asian or world level over the last two years or until July 15 this year are included in the national training pool for the quadrennial event.

The RP men’s baseball team, which landed sixth in the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, wound up fourth in a field of six in the Asian Championship in Taipei last August and failed to win any of its seven games in Group B of the World Cup also in Taipei last November.

"Based on those results, they failed to qualify for this year’s Asian Games," said Carrasco. "And the problem is they don’t have any more international tournaments to join before the July 15 deadline. So, that’s it.

The RP men’s baseball team missed the last bus for the Asian Games when it lost the chance to host the second Southeast Asian Invitational Baseball Championship last month after the PABA failed to inform the PSC a year ahead of the said date.

Carrasco said even if Navasero manages to raise the money on his own, they will not be allowed to join the RP delegation because that would render the Task Force useless and that it would be unfair to the other teams.

"Right from the start, we at the Task Force believe that the have-money-will-travel practice will not take effect this time because we want to send only the best athletes. So, even if they make an appeal, it will be turned down," said Carrasco.