Major League scout to explore local shores development
Tampa Bay Rays scout John Gilmore continues off-beat track to sustain the game's international growth with return visit to Manila
Baseball ambassador and international scout John Gilmore, who led a group of senior American ballplayers on a goodwill games tour that included Manila three years ago, will be back in the country this week as an official representing Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays organization.
Prior to leaving Manila in 2005 to hold their next game in Tokyo, Japan, Gilmore promised to return to Manila to help out Philippine Baseball by creating links between the national program and that of any Major League team.
Gilmore shall be in Manila officially representing the Tampa Bay Rays organization from April 7 thru April 13 to explore the Philippine baseball scene and hold parallel try-out camps in coordination with Baseball Philippines on Saturday, April 12 at the historic Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium in Manila and the Muntinlupa Little League during the 2008 Little League Philippine Series on April 10-11 at the Alabang Country Club Baseball Fields.
As founder of Baseball International — a "not-for-loss" baseball organization — Gilmore initiated the 2005 World Tour when a group of senior American ballplayers played an exhibition game in Manila against former Philippine National Team players from the mid-1960's thru '70's era as part of Baseball International's goodwill World Tour.
The tour was a throwback to nearly a century ago when Major League Baseball planted its first seeds around the globe.
In 1913, then Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey — himself a late 19th century Major League first baseman and pro baseball visionary — initiated a World Tour of baseball to help promote the spread of the game to other countries. Original plans called for it to be a series of games between the White Sox and New York Giants, but because some Giants and White Sox players chose not to participate, players from other teams filled out the rosters.
Both squads left the United States on November 13 for an "around the world tour" that would take them four months to complete. The tour essentially began in the United States midwest shortly after the conclusion of the World Series that year. The squads traveled up the Pacific coast to Vancouver, British Columbia, and began their non-American leg of the tour as they sailed to the Pacific rim. They continued their series with games in Tokyo and ended playing in front of King George V in England. Altogether, the Giants and White Sox played each other in 49 sites around the world including Japan, China, the Philippines, Australia, Ceylon (presently Sri Lanka), India, Egypt, France, and England.
Given the logistical nightmare of present day, a feat of this magnitude had never been repeated until some ninety years later when Baseball International re-enacted the 1913-14 World Tour in a mere 24 days. As that tour was, the 2005 World Tour may be the greatest baseball road trip of the century.
John Gilmore is a Major League international scout formerly of the Cincinnati Reds and currently with the Tampa Bay Rays.