Baseball shake-up looming

MANILA—The winds of change is finally blowing for Philippine baseball.

In a bold move, the sport’s stakeholders yesterday held a summit and formed an ad-hoc committee that will scrutinize the membership rules of the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association to pave the way for an election of a new set of board members and officials.

Paba president Hector Navasero attended the Philippine Olympic Committee-mandated meeting and declared his intention to step down after leading the association for 35 years.

“I really wanted to retire, I’m already tired,” said Navasero. “But there are projects I have started for this year, so maybe we (the elections) can wait until December.”

The stakeholders—most of them current non-Paba members—are not inclined to allow him to stay as Paba chief but expressed desire to name him as “honorary chairman.”

Richard Cruz, manager of the Baseball Philippines’ back-to-back champion Manila Sharks, said the minutes of the meeting will be submitted to the POC next week.

“We’ll discuss who can apply for membership and who is eligible to vote for directors,” said Cruz who was among the more than 30 stakeholders who attended the summit held at the Rizal Memorial ballpark.

He said elections might take place in the next summit probably in September.

“We are happy with what happened today but of course the results will depend on which steps are taken,” said Baseball Philippines’ Leslie Suntay.