Novo Ecijano recruited by Japanese baseball team

PALAYAN CITY: A 22-year-old local baseball star from this once obscure provincial capital is the new toast of Philippine baseball, making history by passing rigid try-outs to earn a slot in a semi-professional baseball league in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Alfredo Olivares Jr. of Barangay Malate here stamped his class as the first-ever Filipino baseball player to be recruited in a farm team in Japan, a baseball powerhouse and breeding ground of such greats as former Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo, Kasuhiro Sasaki, Koji Akiyama and all-time home run leader Sadaharu Oh.