THE Philippines may yet become Asia’s premier baseball training center as a modern stadium is set to be constructed at the University of the Philippines compound in Los Banos, Laguna.
Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (Paba) president Hector Navasero announced that former International Baseball Association president and Baseball Federation of Asia vice president Tom Peng of Taiwan has donated $100,000 for the project.
Navasero said the target completion is on October 10 as he eyed the new baseball stadium as training camp for different Asian baseball clubs including the Philippines.
“The stadium, as designed, will be self-supporting because we will open it to teams from our neighboring Asian countries for training of their national teams and club teams, like Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, which have to travel as far as Guam, Hawaii and Florida to establish their training camps in during winter,” he pointed out.
Asian baseball teams are also not in the priority list of using the American facilities as teams of Major League Baseball of the US are using them as their spring and winter camps.
“Having almost the same weather as those places, the Philippines is an ideal venue for a stadium that will cater to the needs of Asian countries," Navasero said.
“At the same time help our own national team escape the heat and pollution of Manila where the Rizal Memorial Stadium is located,” he added.
Meantime, Peng has invited Navasero and the rest of the Paba board to go to Taipei on August for the signing of the memorandum of agreement so construction could start. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)