MANILA, Philippines - SEA Games where it’s a potential gold medal contender.
The PSC stripped the members of the national baseball team of monthly allowance and billeting privileges after PABA failed to participate in the PSC-Philippine Olympic Committee National Games in Negros Occidental last May.
However, PABA commissioner Ely Baradas said the PSC has cleared the NSA of non-participation in the National Games for lack of competitive field since most of the key players of the teams in the PABA fold have been recruited to the national team.
Baradas said that teams invited by PABA to the PSC-POC Games have begged off from seeing action for lack of mainstays, citing one team official as saying “it would be a waste of time and resources to play against the national team.”
Harbour Centre was willing to play but it said it would have to recall nine players who are members of the national squad.
The National Games was a major tournament in the Phl clouters’ buildup for the Indonesian SEAG this November. They are fancied to figure in the gold medal match after the country won the event in the 2005 Manila Games and came in second two years ago in Thailand.
“The PSC agreed not to hold the event in the National Games after PABA president Hector Navasero informed it that they couldn’t come up with the number of teams needed for the tournament. We were willing to hold it. In fact, there were efforts to convince the teams to play,” Baradas said.
The PSC suspension – which forced two Davao players out of the Rizal Memorial quarters – came amid moves by baseball stakeholders through an ad hoc committee, chaired by Baradas, to review the PABA by-laws to be able to firm up its membership roster in preparation for an election mandated by the POC.