Will Philippine baseball recover?

IF NOT for a freak accident, I would have not gotten into football and would have continued with baseball, which was the much-loved sport in our sleepy town of Polomolok while I was growing up.

Like hundreds of other kids, I took to baseball and even made my school team in the DepEd meet. Back then, kids like me were dreaming to be one of the legendary players in our town who have been sent to Japan in one of those tournaments that grow bigger depending on who’s telling the story.

Anyway, my dalliance with baseball ended due to one man’s stupidity. The umpire, who was advised to wear a mask, refused to do so saying, “Mga bata ra ni sila, hinay ra ni.” Yep, the pitches were probably slow compared to the high school guys, but not a foul hit. I nipped a ball, the catcher didn’t get it and it went straight to the umpire’s head, opening a gash that for a squeamish kid like me, seemed like the Niagara falls of all gashes.

He was stretchered away and I never saw him again, as I never played baseball again.

Baseball has quite a history in the Philippines, as told by one of the officials who visited Cebu in the late 90s. Then, they were planning the revival of the sport, which he said, we taught the Japanese. Baseball, too, was one of the first to adopt a catch nickhame--the then RP Blu Boys--and I remember reading about their exploits when I was starting to write.

Now, Japan’s a world-class baseball playing country while we are left wondering where it all go wrong.

Rick Olivares wrote a baseball manifesto, where he enumerated the ills of the sport, absence of nationwide senior league and absence of integrated development program of national team. He also said that the sport needs a grassroots program in the community level, a nationwide elementary and high school program that feeds a university program, which in turn, feeds a semi-pro league.

These are lofty dreams but I think all are doable. There are snippets of baseball communities in the country that still play the sport--one of which is Cebu. There are guys like Jesse Bernad who are, on their own, trying to promote the sport in the community.

Will baseball ever gain its lofty status? I think so. Remember, football may be enjoying unprecedented popularity now but for decades—even longer than baseball’s decline--it was in the backburner and fans were left remembering glories of the 30s, when we beat Japan, 15-1.

But first things first, like I pointed out to Rick, the national governing body for baseball in the country needs fresh faces, time to get rid of the old guard and to welcome new blood in an organization stuck in limbo.

As pointed out by another columnist Percy Della of the Inquirer, Philippine Amateur Baseball Association president Hector Navasero has held the position for 27 years because of an alliance with Prisaa, which controls 14 of the 17 votes in the association.

Baseball and softball are changing worldwide. After it was removed from the Olympic calendar, the world governing bodies of both groups have combined in a bid to return to the Olympics and the union will also be done in the country.

Perhaps with a new organization, baseball, by losing its identity, will have the much-needed change?

Baseball is not only a sport that we are used to be good it, it’s a sport that we can still be really good at.

All it needs is a shot in the arm.