Over the last few editions of the UAAP Men’s Baseball Tournaments, more and more people have been coming to the historic Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium to watch and support their schools. Even with players coming from various parts of the Philippines, baseball is still considered a small sport, as compared to basketball and football. The spark that will ignite the exponential growth of the sport has yet to come, but the development of the sport is slowly becoming palpable for some Filipino sports fans.
To shed some light on the factors that affect the sport’s development, The LaSallian sits down with Philippine National Baseball Team head coach Lando Binarao and National Team player and DLSU Green Batters co-captain Diego Lozano.
Present circumstances
Often seen as a niche activity in the country, baseball has been making slow and steady progress into becoming a mainstream sport. Lozano shares that access to the proper tools and venues have allowed more Filipino kids to enjoy and appreciate baseball. “A lot are also more interested in the sport, especially since most of the kids these days are given the opportunity to compete locally given that there are more club teams and tournaments,” he affirms. Barinao also shares the same sentiments, but believes that the grassroots programs are very Manila-centric. He explains, “Okay naman yung grassroots. Marami sa Metro Manila, maraming paliga katulad ng Little League, kaso dito lang galing sa Manila yung mga grassroots, wala masyado sa probinsiya.”
(The grassroots programs are okay. There are a lot of leagues in Metro Manila such as the Little League, but all of them are here in Manila. There are not much in the provinces.)
The current programs for baseball in the country have evolved, and Lozano states that it has become a lot more accessible over the years. “[The programs are] continuing to improve and impact every single player who has played the sport. Before, if people [wanted] to learn, they would have to go through private training. Now, there are various camps where even current college players [teach] younger kids how to get better,” he explains.
Necessary steps
In terms of what can be done to increase the interest of people in baseball,
Lozano believes that it should be advertised more, pointing out that the Philippines is basketball and football-driven in terms of sports. According to him, this can be done by regularly televising college games and creating camps, among others. Additionally, he mentions that support from the government could aid the sport’s growth.
Barinao hopes that the government could help develop more baseball facilities and provide more equipment for players. With regard to the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium, he specifies, “Nag-iisa lang itong baseball stadium. Kung makakatulong ang ating gobyerno na magtayo ng ibang stadium, mas mabuti yun.”
(This is our only baseball stadium. If the government can help by building another stadium, then that would be beneficial.)
The national team head coach also confirmed that having leagues all year round would help the sport gain more spectators and make it more appealing to the masses. He states, “Once a year lang ang UAAP…PBL once a year din so kulang tayo sa
paliga talaga.”
(UAAP Baseball only happens once a year, as well as the PBL. We’re really short on leagues.)
Barinao adds that developing programs in the provinces would also help the Philippines produce more quality ballplayers, as the people in the provinces are more eager to play. “Mostly mga players ngayon [in the Philippine team] mga galing probinsiya ito, kaya mas maganda dadalhin [yung sport] sa probinsiya para at least yung mga potential [players] maidadala [for proper training],” he elaborates.
(Most of the players in the Philippine team right now are from the provinces. That’s why I think that it would be better to bring baseball to the provinces so that we could at least bring in players with potential for proper training.)
The sad truth about Philippine baseball on a national scale is that the lack of proper facilities and equipment, according to Barinao, has slowed down the rate at which the talent of Filipino baseball players is developing. However, he believes that we have the potential to compete at the highest level. “Kaya naman po makipag-compete sa mga Asian countries kung yung facilities at equipment kumpleto tayo dito,” he concludes.
(We can really compete with other Asian countries if we had the proper facilities and equipment.)
