{"id":215893,"date":"2015-12-03T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=215893"},"modified":"2015-12-03T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T20:00:48","slug":"delayed-start-for-16-sbl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/delayed-start-for-16-sbl-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Delayed start for \u201916 SBL season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Saipan Baseball League\u2019s 2016 season will be delayed since the Francisco M. \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field still cannot host night games after the lights were damaged by several typhoons. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saipan Baseball League coordinator Tony Rogolifoi said the opening of the 2016 season would be delayed due to the unavailability of the Francisco M. \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi told Saipan Tribune in a one-on-one interview yesterday that he informed representatives of the eight participating teams next season that the lights of the Tan Ko field have not yet been replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t guarantee an exact date yet but I assured everyone that there will be a league next year. There will only be a one or two month delay. I just informed them of the current situation,\u201d said Rogolifoi<\/p>\n

\u201cThe delay is not because of the condition of the field. The baseball field is fine and playable but the lights are either broken or got re-aligned by the strong winds,\u201d added Rogolifoi, who is also the Northern Marianas Sports Association\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

He said that it is only a matter of time before replacement and adjustment of the lights are done at the Tan Ko field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I just told them to start practicing and to get in shape in time for the season. I don\u2019t know when are they going to finish with the repairs but we have to wait. Right now, we can\u2019t do anything about it so we\u2019re just going to deal with it,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

The Brewers will be returning to defend their crown with the Falcons, the runners-up last season, aiming to derail their bid of prolonging their reign to a fourth consecutive year.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays (formerly the Jets), the North Starz, and a team supported by Best Sunshine International, Ltd. are the other confirmed squads.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox of CNMI Junior All-Star team coach Bernard Cabrera, Akkari (Carolinian word that means beat them up), and the Yankees, which would field a younger lineup, are still not sure of their participation in the 2016 season.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi is advising all teams, either sure of joining or are still tentative, to secure their uniforms and equipment. \u201cThe fee remains $1,000 and they should also secure their sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saipan Baseball League coordinator Tony Rogolifoi said the opening of the 2016 season would be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8516,8517,1761,731],"class_list":["post-215893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-akkari-carolinian","tag-bernard-cabrera","tag-north-starz","tag-sbl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}