Baseball, softball bodies merge

MANILA, Philippines - Pressing their bid to restore their respective sports back in the Olympics, the world bodies of baseball and softball have merged into one organization – the World Baseball Softball Confederation – during a meeting held last weekend in Tokyo, Japan.

“This is a significant development for both sports in their campaign to bring baseball and softball back into the Olympic Games,” said Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) secretary general Hector Thomas Navasero in yesterday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

A delegate in the landmark meeting, Navasero said that the union of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and International Softball Federation (ISF) would boost the clout of the two groups in bringing back their sports to the Games after they were dropped from the sports calendar following the Athens Olympiad.

“This is a historic day. We have brought a new level of worldwide unity and determination to our quest to return to the Games,” Navasero quoted IBAF and WBSC co-president Ricardo Fraccari in a press statement.

Appearing in the session presented by Shakey’s, Navasero said the new body has taken up the slogan “Swinging for the Fences” as its pitch for reinstating softball and baseball in the Olympics.

In the same statement, he added, ISF and WBSC president Don Porter noted that “our vision is to give every boy and girl in the world the chance to play baseball and softball and to inspire them to take up either sport through the Olympic Games.”