Pinoys welcome baseball/softball’s Olympic return

MANILA, Philippines — Baseball and softball will make a return to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

And no one is happier than the Filipinos, who have a long history of success in the two sports disciplines.

“Very happy with the development, great opportunity for young kids playing those sports kasi automatically, you have dreamers and if they work hard, achievers of being Olympian athletes,” said Kiko Diaz, University of the Philippines’ softball team coach and member of the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines’ board.

Both were recently added to the LA Games calendar by the International Olympic Committee along with four other events – cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.

Baseball and softball were actually included in the Tokyo edition three years ago but will not be part of the calendar in next year’s Paris staging.

Apart from perennially lording it over the Southeast Asian Games, the country had excelled and qualified in the World Cup multiple times.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Olympic Committee will reportedly raise an issue on the Philippine Sports Commission’s decision to hold the Philippine National Games and the Batang Pinoy simultaneously in separate venues in the National Capital Region from Dec. 17 to 23.

The POC is to discuss this during a general assembly on Oct. 27 at the East Ocean Restaurant in Parañaque City.

The POC expressed in a statement that holding both programs simultaneously “raises questions on the overall integrity of the conduct of the programs with the NSAs (National Sports Associations).”

It added that the NSAs are “pressed to manage and supervise numerous operations in several age brackets in each of the six days of the PNG and Batang Pinoy.”

In another development, POC president Abraham Tolentino yesterday appointed kickboxing’s Atty. Wharton Chan as his new secretary-general, succeeding Atty. Edwin Gastanes.

“Atty. Wharton has shown dedication and energy and his familiarity with the operations of the POC in relation to the International Olympic Committee and the national sports associations (NSAs) fits him to a ‘T,’” said Tolentino.