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THE City of Manila’s rich tradition in the international youth
softball scene will continue under the new administration of Mayor
Alfredo Lim.
Nino de la Cruz, grandson of the city chief
executive who will most-likely be the chairman of the Manila Sports
Council, assured Friday during the SCOOP weekly session at the
Kamayan-Restaurant Padre Faura.
For a start, the 28-year-old de la Cruz said
that besides preserving the gains achieved by several Manila teams
in the Big League Softball World Series for girls 16-18 years under
the Manila Little League Charter program, plan is afoot to organize
the Manila Baseball/Softball Club to oversee the promotion and
development of the two sports among the city’s youths.
“We will be coordinating closely with the
Manila Little League Charter under its president Engineer Robert
Evangelista so that we can also improve on the program’s successes
in the world championships,” de la Cruz said during the forum
sponsored by Accel.
“But as envisioned by my grandfather, Mayor
Lim, we will expand the program as to include baseball so that we
can continue to as far providing avenue for our products to continue
playing their favorite sports to the adult division,” he added.
Evangelista said that this is the reason for
organizing the Manila Baseball/Softball Club, to enable players
coming from the Little League program to continue playing in
organized competitions as the collegiate commercial leagues.
“The program we initiated as early as 2001 has
been producing players that merited membership in the UAAP teams as
well as in the national team. In fact, 10 of the members of the
Philippine Blu Girls are products of the Manila Little League
program,” Evangelista disclosed.
“Team Manila has, so far, won three
third-place finishes in the Big League World Series, so we thought
of expanding the program as to include the adult divisions in both
softball and baseball,” Evangelista said.
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