PHL Team Bats for Slot in World Baseball Classic
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 10 Nov 2012
MANILA (PNA) -- A 28-player Philippine baseball team, 12 of them Fil-Americans, leaves today for Taipei to take part in the World Baseball Classics qualifying tournament scheduled November . Only 16 players and seven officials are departing though, according delegation head Tom Navasero during Friday? SCOOP Sa Kamayan session, as the 12 Fil-Ams, the largest non-local born reinforcements to have been chosen to beef up a national team in any sport, will be joining their teammates in Taipei coming from the different parts of the United States.
Heading today?s departure, Navasero said during the session, sponsored by Powerade, AKTV and FILA, are team manager Marty Eizmendi, liason officer Relipe Remollo and coaches Kunifumi Itakura, Wilfredo Hidalgo Jr. and Roel Empacis.
Fil-Am players who made it to the team are Ryuya Ogawa, Geno Espeneli, Max Javate, Alec Rosales, Devon Bryce Ramirez, Chad Nacapoy, Andres Vasquez, Leighton Pangilinan, William Ireton, Jonathan Laygo, Edwin Jimenez and Ryan Pineda, all chosen from the Major Baseball League as well as collegiate campaigners in the U.S.
They, according to Navasero, son of baseball association president Hector Navasero, were recommended by the sponsoring World Baseball Classics.
?Teams participating in the WBC are not actually representing their countries.? Navasero said by way of defending the selection. The WBC is a tournament to promote and develop baseball globally that?s why foreign players, Fil-Ams as in the case of the Philippines, are allowed to play for the country of their roots.?
Local born players are Darwin Dela Calzada, Jon Jon Robels, Ernesto Binarao, Charlie Labrador, Vladimir de Guia, Romeo Jasmin Jr., Joseph Orillana, Carlos Alberto Munoz, Rommel Rojha, Ruben Angeles, Jennald Pareja, Francis Candela, Jonash Ponce and Saxon Omandac. Never had a national team in any sport brought that many non-pure Filipinos in any Philippine participation in international competition, thus, depriving local talents, some of whom are mainstays of previous national squads that were victorious in the Southeast Asian Games.
The selection drew flaks from several sectors of the local baseball community, especially because of the inclusion of four players who seldom attend the series tryouts held under the supervision of the coaching staff and whose only credentials are they are related to delegation officials.
One team member has long been retired, while another was chose as member of the bullpen catching staff even if he never played the position all his life. Two never attended a single tryout session at all, claimed those disgruntled members of local baseball community. Left in the selection of the team composition were Jennifer Penero, acknowledged as one of the best hitters in the country today and 12-time member of the national team; Fong Rances, 10-time member of the national team; Marvin Malig, two-time UAAP MVP; and SEA Games gold medalists Phedo Olivarez, Justin Zialcita and Christian Galedo.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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