Baseball dreams
Sheryll of the North Cebu baseball charter sent an email to thank me for writing about their team.
She also said three of their members are now in Manila, playing baseball. Two are in the University of Sto. Tomas, while another is in National University.
“They are the products of North Cebu Little League and also the bronze medalist in secondary baseball in the Palarong Pambansa 2017 in Antique,” she said.
And they aren’t resting on their laurels. They won the gold medal in the Batang Pinoy Visayas elimination in Iloilo City, which was the first time I heard of the team and its successful program up north. Also last week, I read the team will be participating in the Visayas elimination of the Philippine series, sending three teams. It’s going to be part of their preparations for the Palaro since they will be fielding almost the same players.
It’s nice how much this team has accomplished under the radar and I hope they accomplish some more, especially in the Philippine Series. I think a championship run in the national finals would do wonders for the sport’s popularity all over Cebu Province. But I’m getting too ahead of myself.
It’s great that Cebu will have a representative in the Visayas eliminations since Cebu City isn’t sending any. There used to be the Cebu Association of Batted Sports but I think it died a natural death and I haven’t heard of any group for the sport here.
Yes, there are selfless individuals from Talamban and Labangon who organize one-day softball tournaments in an effort to keep batted sports alive, but I haven’t heard of any baseball tournament in the city outside of the Department of Education meet.
Which brings me to an idea I’ve been broaching. What if the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission will include baseball in its next province-wide Governor’s Cup? After basketball, they added volleyball. Maybe baseball could be next?
More competition can improve the quality of players and if players down south get to face players of North Cebu’s caliber regularly, they will improve. An improved competition also would help North Cebu when it joins tournaments outside Cebu.
Everybody wins.