It does not suprise me that a senator like the Hon. Francis Tolentino has come out with a personal push for baseball and softball.
A Caviteno, the good senator has noted how interest in these two sports disciplines have waned and ebbed over the years.
Cavite province used to be a spawning ground – aside from Laguna (Canlubang), Rizal, Negros Occidental (Bacolod), Zamboanga (Zamboanga City), Davao, Batangas, Ilocos Sur et al – of excellent and talented pitchers and sluggers in the fifties, sixties and seventies.
Tolentino recalls that Pinoy baseball and softball teams used to rule the Asian sphere at the height of the Blu Boys
and Blu Girls popularity and success.
Today, Pinoys still are in the thick of the fight but China, South Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei have slowly but surely eased the Philippines out of the championship mix.
That is because these countries are very actively pursuing their respective progressive templates for these two sports.starting with age group contests in the communities and villages, then the schools (elementary and secondary and through college.
They also have active semi-professional and/or professional leagues like in Japan and South Korea.
We used to have the PONY and LITTLE LEAGUE baseball and softball tournaments which I covered actively in the eighties and nineties here and abroad.
I am in the dark as to the present state of these leagues because I don’t get to read articles about them in the sports media nowadays.
Tolentino should make the push harder by igniting the idea among baseball blocs, groups and corporate entities to form and organize a professional league separately for baseball and softball ala the PBA.
Having professional leagues gives the collegiate and aspiring players opportunitities to make baseball and softball a
career and a lifetime endeavor.
This idea has been discussed many decades ago.
Not all aspiring athletes desire to be basketball stars.
In the 70s when the late Rizal Gov. Isidro Rordigues was the president of ASA-PHIL,(Amateur Softball Association of the Phils.), he lent his wisdom and time to fund and personally ensure the Blu Boys and Blu Girls maintain their prominent standing in Asia.
He even floated the idea of starting a pro league even with just 6 active ballclubs.
However, the growing popularity of basketball overtook and smashed the idea to smithereens.
The sports media turned its full attention to the then infantile PBA that gobbled up available space in the print and broadcast media.
I personally encourage the good senator to pursue his interest in reviving the old glory days of Philippine baseball and softball..
There are legions of young boys and girls in the provinces and remote villages who are natuirally attracted to the game played on rice fields and rough grounds.
They don’t need to wear expensive foreign-made rubber shoes and elaborately-stitched uniforms to get into the sport.
Come on, Sir. You hit the nail right on its head. (Email feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
