A new baseball league, put up to further develop the sport and raise the quality of play to a higher level, unveils over the weekend at the Rizal Memorial baseball stadium with an inaugural series featuring five teams from Manila, Makati, Laguna, Cebu and Negros Occidental.
Baseball Philippines, a community-based league designed not only to provide support for baseball but also to sustain the resurgence of the sport in the youth and adult sectors, formally kicks off this Sunday with Community Sports, Inc. (CSI), a joint venture between Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. and Pure Play Sports Management, Inc., staging the event.
The men behind the tournament appeared in yesterday’s PSA Forum at the main function room of the Pantalan Restaurant in Manila, where all of them insisted baseball still has a place in Philippine sports despite its declining popularity here in recent years.
“There’s a growing interest (in baseball), it never really died after the sport’s golden year in the 50s,” said CSI vice chairman and Pure Play Sports president Anthony Suntay in the weekly forum sponsored by Pagcor, Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and son Arnold “Ali” Atienza.
“We’re here to help Philippines embrace again this very beautiful game,” said Mike Styrbel, long-time NCAA-Division 1 umpire and now Baseball Philippines technical adviser.
The Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA), through president Hector Navasero, has given full recognition to the event by signing a Memorandum of Agreement with CSI president Moying Martelino; and has allowed members of the national team to be equally distributed to the participating teams to ensure competitiveness and parity in the league.