Pitching for baseball and national sports

There’s a seven-page letter from the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association sent to the Inquirer Sports desk contesting the allegations of parents whose credentialled kids had allegedly been left out of the national tryouts for the recent Asian 12-Under Baseball Championship.

The letter came a little late, two weeks after this reporter had requested a reply to the bothersome contention of spurned baseball parents, who claimed the selection process was rigged and unfair.

This reporter received the letter sent to our sports desk via e-mail on Tuesday. We wanted to promptly print Paba’s side of the issue; however, a waiver contained in the e-mail transmission has prevented the downloading of the reply letter, except by the initial intended party.

Our sports desk, the initial recipient, has promised to download the Paba letter before passing on the raw copy to me.

It will be published with the hope there would be a solution to the boys’ baseball issue—once both sides are heard—for the betterment of sports in the country.

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Meanwhile, one bright development came with a report last week that a bill would be filed in the Senate to put up a national sports body, a sort of academy, to help young grassroots athletes.

The report said Sen. Bam Aquino and Sonny Angara would seek a funding of over P2-billion for the project.

The sum would be used to put up necessary facilities, including gyms, world-class equipment, and other necessary amenities to help young aspiring talents from the grassroots get a better chance at improving and excelling.

It was indeed a shot in the arm for poor Philippine sports, which sank to its lowest with a worst finish in the last Southeast Asian Games held in Myanmar (Burma).

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Anyway, it was also reported that the grassroots academy would be left in the care and management of the Philippine Sports Commission.

There’s no doubt the two young senators have fully recognized the absence of a competent body to truly develop and improve Philippine sports.

We’ve nothing against the PSC which, if we may remind Sen. Angara and Aquino, has been created principally as a funding arm of Philippine amateur sports.

Pardon this but, so far, the PSC has not demonstrated any capacity to properly handle sports development, a fact which has led pundits, including this reporter, to maintain that the PSC has long surpassed its level of incompetence.

This is not to tell the two energetic senators what to do. But we find it our duty to remind them that the proposed academy, if it could be called such, could function properly only if put under the care and management of competent sports authorities with proper education and training.

Shouldn’t the grassroots academy be at least patterned in part and principal to the scientific one they have in China, to at least make sure it doesn’t land in the hands of primitive national sports politicians?