Taiwan pro squad to assist RP baseball program

MANILA, Philippines – Chinese-Taipei’s La New Bears, a professional baseball team, is willing to help the country improve its baseball program. Team officials led by General Manager Kou Chien-lin arrived in the country Wednesday to meet with the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) on how both sports organizations can further expand its baseball relationship. La New Bears, one of the four teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), has helped PABA in training the country’s National players two years ago where they invited pitchers Darwin Dela Calzada and Jonash Ponce in their training camp for free. The camp helped improved their game with Dela Calzada emerging as the best pitcher during the 2007 Thailand SEA Games and became the first recipient of the Emilio Bernardino Award in the Baseball Philippines series while playing for the Dumaguete Unibikers last year. Kou arrived along with International Affairs Department (IAD) head Tek Lee and Minor League GM Roger Tsai and PABA director at large Joe Hung. The group informed PABA president Hector Navasero of their willingness to again train national players in Taipei. “We’re willing to accept five players including two junior players for a month long training for free. All you need is to spend for their plane fare and we’ll take care of the rest," said Kou. The Bears also opened the possibility of the Kaoshiung-based squad in using the Rizal Memorial Baseball Field as a training facility especially during winter in Taiwan. “They (CPBL officials) are going to see the field and make a report to determine if the condition is up to standard. Should it materialize, the Philippines will greatly benefit from it since other members of the national team can be accommodated in their training," said Hung. There are also plans to bring the Bears here for a series of exhibition matches with the national team aside from the possibility of helping the members of the junior team by holding games between both countries during weekends. The Bears won their first title in 2006 and settled with a pair of runner-up finishes in the next two seasons. – GMANews.TV