Saturday, January 12, 2008 Minus Sarabia, survival of baseball here is nil
WITHOUT Coach Joaquin "Boy" Sarabia, baseball in Davao City would have little chance of surviving as a sport.
Aside from the fact that no school in Davao City except the University of Mindanao (UM) Matina that truly patronizes the sport, most of our people are hook on to basketball like no one else does.
Basketball, however, gets the most competition in football as a focus sport in as far as Ateneo de Davao and Emar Learning Center are concerned. The equally sports-oriented Holy Child School of Davao still has basketball as their main sport.
Like football, baseball is an outdoor game and needs to occupy a bigger field to play on.
We are lucky at the Davao Football Association to have established a foothold at the Tiongco-owned property at the old Agro field, which was even in danger for quite sometime of being transformed into a golf driving range.
Our stay in that field is not even as secured as baseball which has two regular baseball diamonds at the UM Matina campus where Sarabia is directing the multi-sports events of the school.
Real competition, however, is not between the different sports disciplines or organizations, but against property development as more investors come to the city looking for a place to stay. This occurs even as Davao City continues to take center stage in real estate development.
Recently, the UM sports official has found an ally in a young Japanese baseball enthusiast who has been unloading a lot of assistance to this city to rekindle our enthusiasm of the game.
With Yseke Uichida around and had recently unloaded thirty six boxes of baseball gears like balls, bats and gloves, it would not be for long when baseball gets a good batting average as another sport in focus.
Baseball-oriented Japan, the "Land of the Rising Sun" has the Davao-based Datu Uichida Development Foundation as its major conduit in channeling its support for the development of baseball in the region.
Next month, coach Sarabia with the help of Uichida will stage the Davao City Baseball Cup and will treat some 200 to 300 participating players and coaches to a free lunch.
DSA Beat: This augurs well for the rekindling of our enthusiasm for baseball in Davao.
