MANILA, Philippines?Baseball Philippines dished out two complete series in 2008, churning out plenty of down-the-wire matches that brought two different champion teams in the Batangas Bulls and Cebu Dolphins.
The year started rough after the league lost one of its most exciting pitchers, Makati Mariner ace Jonjon Robles who got noticed by international scouts and was recruited for the Arrows Ostrava in the Czech Republic league.
Just the same, BP operations director Leslie Suntay said it was a testament to the level of competency in the league, although he admitted the departure caused league rules to be amended.
?Externally it opened the eyes of other players/team owners/investors that our homegrown players can make it big in the international arena. BP will always encourage players to aspire playing abroad,? added Suntay.
When the former UST stalwart who steered the Mariners to the Series 1 title in 2007 shipped out, Makati went into a tailspin, losing eight of their nine remaining games in Series 3, prompting the league to make new rules limiting the teams? dependency on its ace pitchers.
The newcomer Batangas Bulls ended up winning the title in Cinderella fashion, beating the Dumaguete Unibikers in the finals of the Series 3 last July when the league introduced a seven-team format.
?Series 3 results gave the league the necessary wisdom for the different team managers to opt to stick with six teams for Series 4 (due to the lack of quality pitchers and players),? Suntay claimed. ?This development led to more quality games played in Series 4 taking into consideration that teams were forced to use their second and third string pitchers.?
True enough, Series 4 saw an even playing field but eventually the Dolphins (Series 2 champs) beefed up its arsenal enough (with the arrival of former Little Leaguer Jerome Bacarisas and Basti Uichico) to repel the Unibikers, 2-0, for the title.
Later in the season, BP also brought in a true blue Major League hurler in Filipino-American Eugene ?Geno? Macalalag Espineli, who is now relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
