October reset for baseball qualifiers?

It could be a six-month postponement for the two-part World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers that would’ve been held at the Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, from March 13-18 for the first bracket and 20-25 for the second. The Philippine team, drawn to the second group, was supposed to leave for Tucson this morning.

Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) president Chito Loyzaga said at the moment, the priority is to keep safe. “I’m very confident the WBC and other sports organizations will make the strongest comeback after the whole world overcomes the Covid-19 pandemic which will be to the delight of the players, coaches, fans and communities,” said Loyzaga.

PABA secretary-general Pepe Muñoz said the earliest the qualifiers will be rescheduled is in October after the major league season ends. “The WBC proper is set for March 2021,” he said. “It will be a tight squeeze to have the qualifiers also during March. That’s why I think October or November is more feasible. There is a report that major league baseball will start after Memorial Day or maybe in early June. Of course, all that is up in the air. It will depend on developments with the virus. The New York Yankees voted to stay in training camp.”

The Philippine team would’ve competed with the Czech Republic, UK, New Zealand, Panama and Spain in the second qualifying bracket where the top two finishers advance to the WBC proper. The Philippine roster listed 15 local players and 14 recruits from the US and Japan with Filipino heritage or birth.  Comprising the first qualifying group are South Africa, France, Germany, Nicaragua, Brazil and Pakistan.

Muñoz said he was informed that teams in the first qualifier were already in the US when the postponement was confirmed last week. “In general, everybody is disappointed but at the same time, we are now overwhelmed by the quarantine and all these new restrictions we need to work with,” he said. “In our bracket, most of the Spanish players were in spring training with their minor league teams in the US. The bulk of the Czech team was still in their home country but some were in the US, including Eric Sogard with the Tampa Bay Rays and Martin Cervenka with the Baltimore Orioles triple A team. Four or five were with minor league clubs. Most of the UK players were not yet in the US and New Zealand was still at home. Panama’s minor leaguers were in the US.”

Panama is loaded with major league veterans like Manny Acosta, Enrique Burgos, Paolo Espino, Severino Gonzalez, Ariel Jurado, Davis Romero, Miguel Amaya, Christian Bethancourt, Allen Cordoba and Edmundo Sosa. But the difference between Panama’s major leaguers and Spain’s players is heritage. Panama’s players are Panamanian while most of Spain’s players come from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba. Spain’s coach is former major leaguer Luis Sojo of Venezuela.

The Philippines’ US coach Bill Picketts, who’s married to a Filipina, said the postponement was unfortunate but necessary. “For the players I’ve communicated with, they’re disappointed as I am but we all understand it had to be done,” he said. “Everything in the US is changing daily, hourly. Just yesterday, my college (Los Angeles Pierce) sent out three emails changing the details of our schedule. We were allowed to have practice but now they want us to limit person to person contact. I know who Luis Sojo is although I don’t know him personally. It’s exciting knowing that I’ll be coaching against someone of his stature.”

Muñoz said the postponement will allow the Philippines to tweak its roster. “What’s interesting is that after Tim Tebow announced he would join our team, a lot of Fil-Am players came out of the woodwork,” he said. “So I have to work on a very large database now. There will be opportunities to tweak our roster to make it stronger. Tim and the other US-based players will be able to play once the restrictions are lifted.”

Muñoz said with the shutdown of all major, minor and independent leagues, players have gone home to their families. “One of our recruits Devon Ramirez was supposed to play in the Italian league,” he said. “Definitely, he’s staying home in California. I’m not sure about our two Japan-based players Jonhil Carreon and Yuki Takayama. I’ll check if games in the Japanese leagues have been suspended. There was a recent announcement that the Koshien tournament, the national high school championships of Japan, was cancelled.”