Baseball, softball given extension to raise airfare

The Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association has given baseball and softball until March 3 to turn over airfare payments for their trip to the Palau South Pacific Mini Games this coming July and August.

The deadline was decided during the Jan. 6 NMASA general membership meeting held at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

NMASA president Michael White said the Saipan Major League and Saipan Softball Association must meet the March 3 deadline, because it would be harder to get tickets for the flight to Koror after that date.

Sports organizations sending athletes and officials to Palau this summer must shell out $800 per participant to the Mini Games.

The original schedule date of payments of $200 increments each were Oct. 1, Dec. 1, March 1, and May 1, but because of fundraising difficulties and the apparent economic pall experienced by the Northern Marianas, the NMASA board has extended the drop-dead deadlines for the payments.

White, however, said that since baseball and softball have larger contingents compared to the other sports, NMASA must secure airfare payments from the SML and SSA at the soonest possible time or risk paying more money for airfare costs.

SML is reportedly sending a 21-man contingent to Palau, while SSA has reserved 35 slots for both its men and women fast-pitch softball teams to the Mini Games.

Tony Rogollifoi, SML coordinator, and Robert Guerrero, SSA president, agreed with the NMASA board and White’s decision about the drop-dead dates for airfare payments.

Guerrero even intimated that if softball can’t come up with the money by the March 3 deadline, then the trip to Palau just isn’t in the cards.

“I would be honest with you, we’ve been fundraising since November and if we can’t come up with the funding by March, then we shouldn’t go,” he said.

Rogolifoi agreed with Guerrero’s frank assessment and added that baseball would concur with NMASA’s decision.

White also said that since canoeing is in the same boat as baseball and softball, the deadline should also apply to them.

Earlier in the meeting, baseball and softball officials got a much-needed ally when Joe Ocampo of wrestling voiced the opinion that both sports should be given as much time as possible to raise the money to cover their athletes and officials’ airfare.

Ocampo said he understood how hard it is to fund raise these days and mentioned that coming up with the $800 for two wrestlers was hard enough; what more for 20 or more participants.

In the last South Pacific Mini Games in Suva, Guam won the gold medal in baseball after beating American Samoa in the finals. Many on Saipan believe that if SML was only able to send a team to Fiji, the Commonwealth would have gotten two silver medals in the Games, at the least, and not just one from swimming.