Baseball Philippines: The New Hope
Geographic-based circuit seeks to deliver promise
“Be as the river willow that bends and sways with the wind. That which remains changeless shall outlive its spirit, but that which evolves and grows will shine for centuries.” -- Scott Cunningham
Last Sunday’s inauguration of Baseball Philippines into Philippine sporting lore marks the country’s latest bid to regain prominence on the international sports landscape. Over the next six weekends, the pilot series of this new league will test the waters in what amounts to be the biggest collective bargaining agreement effort in Philippine Baseball this generation. The league hopes to deliver the promise which several Filipinos have been denied – a geographic community-based professional level baseball circuit in due time deserving of international cognizance by virtue of its merit and performance.
Laying all the chips on the table has its price however. This joint collaborative effort has established a “working relationship” with Major League Baseball [International], the world’s premier baseball institution. Jim Small, MLB International’s vice-president for market development welcomed the project, vowing support by way of bringing in MLB’s top marketing people and some coaches from the United States to help in laying the foundation for Baseball Philippines.
There are currently over 100 National Baseball Federations around the world. Players from more than 30 countries dot the rosters of the United States professional ranks, with over 45% of players in Major League Baseball organizations born outside the US. As baseball’s popularity continues to grow and sustain itself globally, so does the role of MLB International.
"We have a mission to grow baseball outside the United States… We will do it. We will have somebody this year to work on it," said Jim Small, who has been in and out of Manila in the recent months for a series of meetings with the country’s baseball brass. Citing the rich history of Philippine Baseball and the Filipinos’ grasp of the English language, MLB International has given the leaders of Philippine Baseball an ultimatum towards professionalizing its infrastructure, placing quality games on the field, and making up for wasted opportunities.
Historically, Filipinos have been known to start new things in hope for the better, but much more has been taken away with the lack of resolve and follow-through thereafter. Hope does spring eternal however, and it is never too late to change. While on the surface, indications are that Baseball Philippines is the next step in the right direction for Philippine Baseball, several issues will no doubt continue to linger and hound this new circuit, both on and off the field. Just how much will Major League Baseball International have to swallow before this new circuit echoes the old rhetoric that has plagued Philippine Baseball through much of the last three decades. Only our collective resolve on how many rungs up the ladder we are willing to take will tell.
Much of the blame for the impasse Philippine baseball has experienced in that period is shouldered by Philippine Amateur Baseball Association president Hector Navasero, who has apparently vowed in good faith to resign and give way to younger leaders “probably after the [December 2007] Southeast Asian Games”. In line with the aforementioned, Navasero has pledged to widen the talent base for baseball by coordinating with various local baseball development associations, which he has reluctantly embraced throughout his tenure. For its part on Baseball Philippines, PABA has released its chokehold on the national team allowing the players to be dispersed throughout the league so as to lend competitive parity to the new circuit. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come throughout Philippine Baseball; one that lets free market forces determine how and where talent is developed and secured.
Spearheading this national effort for Baseball Philippines is a collection of thoroughbreds deeply involved in the Philippine sports scene. Community Sports Inc., the joint venture between Sports Vision Management Group Inc. and Pureplay Sports Management Inc. tasked with taking the game to the next level has the vision of giving more opportunities to those involved in the sport a chance to participate in baseball both on and off the field.
“We hope we could help sustain the resurgence of the sport in the youth and adult sectors,” said Harbour Centre owner Mikee Romero, one of Baseball Philippines’ stakeholders. “We are committed to help Philippine sports. That’s why we’re helping this noble project.”
The new bloodlines drawn on Philippine Baseball are an indication of the innovation our brazen sports executives have embraced. Make no mistake about it, Baseball Philippines in its infancy is about the evolution of the baseball infrastructure in the Philippine setting. The flow of talent and the generation of a sustainable market base are expected to follow suit in the long run.
On the field, however, there is a lot of work to be done as Baseball Philippines leaves much to be desired. Realistically speaking, not much talent can be honed in a tournament setting, let alone the enhancement of competition. MLB’s endorsement package inherently calls and behooves us for objective measures of performance and progress. So while the circuit has MLB International’s blessing, caution should be thrown to the wind. The Philippines, through PABA, has been a part of MLB International’s Envoy Program for two decades now yet there has been no tangible progress on the diamond. Over that timeframe and the gap between the demise of the Manila Bay Baseball League in the late 1970’s, our South Korean neighbors to the northeast have grown into a world baseball powerhouse, obscuring the fact that the Filipinos had the better of the Koreans as the last quarter of the 20 th century approached. And that underscored how Philippine baseball stacked up against Japanese baseball ever since the sport was introduced in the islands up through the middle of the last century, an era when US baseball immortals like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, Jimmie Foxx, John McGraw, et al took the field on Philippine soil against our very own.
While participation in Philippine baseball has remained active since, the severe lack of competition has lagged behind world class standards. Not since the 2004 Titans League has Philippine baseball experienced anything more than a 14-game [per team] season schedule. Spread out over the course of the year, no local team on the archipelago has played in more than 25 meaningful and competitive games on a consistent basis over the long haul. The PABA circuit has been so inefficient and ineffective over the years that an eight-game season schedule would be lucky to see it through and uninterrupted. Meanwhile, the nation’s top collegiate circuit -- the University Athletics Association of the Philippines -- plays out a mere 10-game season schedule over a two-month period. Little Leaguers across the globe play more games than we do. Those are certainly not indices that define a solid baseball program, one which requires the stress of everyday play essential to the fine points of the game and encourages competitive innovation.
At bat, international standards call for a position player to have his 400-500 plate appearances each year. Tony Olayvar’s individual record 58 plate appearances over the course of the 2003 Titans League currently appears safe at the moment. While Olayvar has matured as a hitter, it should be noted that the quality of those at bats have come mostly against mediocre pitching, a phenomenon that cannot be developed over the course of a few games each year.
As far as the aspects of hitting are concerned, many Filipinos still lack the proper mechanics to be able to drive the ball hard and consistently. And doing so does not even mean going for the long ball. Homerun power just is not within our gene pool of currently available talent. Moreover, it doesn’t help that the current style of play calls for individual glory more than team play. A lot of what goes on in the batter’s box has to do with execution, not just physically but mentally as well. It is not uncommon to watch a game where everyone is pull-conscious and goes up there hacking. Just like our Asian counterparts, with a few exceptions, Filipinos are more suited to playing small ball, that is, manufacturing a run and playing station-to-station baseball while executing the little things. Not many have learned how to hit the ball the other way or lay down that sacrifice bunt here and there. On a finer scale, when was the last time you heard a coach or fellow teammate school another on making a productive out or executing the hit-and-run? In addition, there has not been much emphasis given towards working the count either. Alabang’s Leslie Suntay is among the nation’s foremost hitters in working the count. His on-base percentage comes in at close to 200 points above league averages and there have been few hitters this shore with his ability to patiently exploit pitchers’ lack of command.
Speaking of pitching, right-handed phenom Glenn Tuazon’s 53 2/3 innings on the mound during the 2006 Titans League ranks among the nation’s all time highs in a season for a pitcher in recorded Philippine Baseball history. But his command was suspect even against mostly mediocre hitting, as he issued 23 walks and plunked seven batters. It was his ability nonetheless to put the ball in the strike zone and his team’s lack of pitching depth that kept him on the hill. On the average, Filipino hurlers throw no more than 40 innings each year and rarely within a span of four days do they go on back to back outings. But while providing a fairly decent amount of workload, there is still the lack of competitive stress desired in a pitcher’s arm, one that establishes a rhythmic workload year in and year out.
Talent and skill-wise, the fastball velocities of the top-tier of Philippine pitchers are clocked in the low 80-mph range with maybe a handful that can touch the mid-80’s. Many hurlers though come in at the low to mid-70 mph range at this juncture. Coupled with the lack of stamina and faulty mechanics on several of these hurlers, maintaining such velocity on a fastball -- let alone command of a repertoire of pitches --rarely goes beyond a few innings. It is not uncommon for a soul not having seen live pitching in a few years to take one or two batting practice sessions then hack away at that 70-mph cooler or sit on that 60-mph breaking ball. Pitchers just do not have the arsenal of pitches nor the control that goes with each pitch. Neither is there a thorough understanding of the strike zone and how to pitch. Painting corners, throwing a back-door breaking ball, changing speeds, and pick-off moves are as foreign as they come. As far as command of pitches goes, it is rare to find the consistency Ernesto Binarao displayed during the 2006 Titans League when his left-arm showed impeccable control in going 26 innings without issuing a free pass, the only blemish being a hit batter; but Binarao still surrendered 24 hits.
When faced with international competition however, the weaknesses were more glaring. During the 2006 Intercontinental Cup in Taiwan against some of the world’s top baseball talent, six of the country’s premier pitchers were hammered for a combined staff earned run average of 13.14, 14.6 hits allowed per game, and 5.4 walks allowed per game, by far the worst in the nine-game tournament. The Asian Games fiasco followed a month later and it is not even worth mentioning how disastrous the level of play had become when Team Philippines self-destructed, particularly when it couldn’t field the baseball.
Speaking of which, fielding prowess has consistently been an overlooked factor. While league averages check in at .880 (roughly four errors per game) and the better fielding teams come in at around .940, it is still quite far-fetched from the .980 (less than an error per game) fielding percentage range expected on the world stage. And that lackluster number already takes into account several balls that are not even smoked off the bats. Only consistent play at or close to an everyday nature on a competitive level against a decent hitting line-up can lessen the gap. As far as defensive efficiency is weighed, outfielders are nowhere close to being schooled on balls hit over their heads nor to the gaps while infielders don’t even practice the run-down.
That raises yet a further concern: poor base-running. Believe it or not, the porous defenses and poor pitchers’ moves abound have made running the base paths almost a non-factor in the quality of the Philippine game. Nevertheless, there is no more embarrassing situation than having a runner picked off or cut down for poor communication on the base paths or from straying away too far or not taking a good lead from a given base.
And those are just the fundamentals. It is not uncommon in baseball circles abroad to say that on a talent scale, a fine local team playing its A-game can hold its own against an equivalent team from single-A ball in the U.S., but that same team playing below its potential as is more often the case in the Philippine setting, can look like the Bad News Bears in Manila.
So we ask ourselves. Is Baseball Philippines really up to the challenge? History says we are due for a generation of change, the real measure of which will come when local baseball interest groups unequivocally embrace this new landscape of Philippine Baseball and take a pro-active approach towards further innovation, cultivating local markets in the process.
To what extent will this threshold of hope with an unprecedented collaborative effort provide smooth sailing for Philippine Baseball? We can ill-afford all of this to be reduced to old rhetoric. It was almost 15 years ago when an attempted revival of the prestigious Manila Bay Baseball League that echoed what we are witnessing today went down the drain faster than we can comprehend.
The ever so reclusive Philippine sports media has come out of its shell and this should only bode well for the sport. It’s high time the game is brought into the public consciousness as a legitimate alternative to community-based entertainment.
“What we’ll show are highlights and sequences of every game” said Jude Turcuato, vice-president of Solar Sports. “We’ll also update viewers on the scores, team standings and other happenings around the league in every telecast of Solar Sports Desk” he added.
“The important ingredients are already in place, the sponsors, participants, and stakeholders” said Community Sports Inc. president Mauricio Martelino.
Whether we have the resolve to follow-through will be determined as we cross uncharted waters. Call it nation-building on the diamond.
"Sali ka! Sali tayo!"
You’re in the game!