PABA launches super tourney

MANILA, Philippines – A super tournament composed of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, Private Schools Athletic Association, State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association, the current national team and, possibly, Baseball Philippines All Stars, will be launched soon.

Philippine Amateur Baseball Association executive director Ely Baradas said the series, primarily designed to select membership of the Philippine team to the coming Asian Games, is the first project on the agenda of the newly elected PABA board.

“We’ve receiving complaints on the way the national teams are being formed. That for several years now, the same players are being chosen,” Baradas, a many-time national coach for baseball and softball, said last Friday during the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-PadreFaura.

“ So I was asked by new PABA president Emmanuel Angeles to draw up a plan to form a widely represented team for future international competitions, particularly this coming Asian Games,” said Baradas.

“I have already talked to those concerned, including Dr. Gonzalo Duque of PRISAA, Dr. Robert Calo of SCUAA and national coach Ric Jimenez and they all welcome the idea,” Baradas said. “I’m scheduled to meet with Leslie Suntay of Baseball within the week to complete a five-team series.”

Baradas said that while the Philippines cannot beat world-class Japan and Korea and even China and Chinese Taipei on the Asian level, PABA is inclined to send a team to the Asian Games in November in Guangzhou since it has qualified by winning the qualifying tournament last year.

“We in PABA, like ex-president Mr. (Hector) Navasero, feel we owe it to the Filipino players that they see action in Guangzhou because they earned it. They sacrificed a lot bringing honor to the country by topping the tournament,” he said.

“Hindi naman nila kasalanan na world-caliber ang Japan at Korea na , at one time or another have won the Olympics and World Classic. If we can form a competitive team

capable of, say ending up fourth or even third, then we should send a team,” he stressed.

“Besides, if we don’t compete, we will be losing our Asian and world stnding.”

Navasero, he clarified, is still in baseball and being PABA chair is tasked with taking care of the association’s international relations.

Baradas also disclosed that the presently constituted PABA board has already pinpointed that lack of link between the country’s strong Little League program and the collegiate league is the main reason for the present sad state of Philippine baseball.

“Myself and Mr. Raul Saberon (a baseball/softball great and a strong advocate for the formation of a high school league) have been meeting constantly to provide that missing link and, perhaps, in the middle of this year, we would already come up a secondary league patterned after that in Japan,” he bared. (ENDIT)