{"id":355362,"date":"2021-11-08T06:03:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T20:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=355362"},"modified":"2021-11-08T06:03:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T20:03:24","slug":"sbl-worried-when-tanko-repairs-will-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/sbl-worried-when-tanko-repairs-will-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"SBL \u2018worried\u2019 when \u2018Tan\u2019Ko\u2019 repairs will be done"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d M. Palacios Baseball Field hasn\u2019t hosted a Saipan Baseball League game since Super Typhoon Yutu hammered Saipan in October 2018. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Saipan Baseball League is getting nervous with only a little over 220 days before the CNMI hosts its first-ever Pacific Mini Games and the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d M. Palacios Baseball Field still far away from being repaired.<\/p>\n

SBL president Jay Santos said the tryouts for the CNMI National Baseball Team needs a practice field and once they\u2019ve chosen the final 20 players they need the Tan Ko baseball field to start a new SBL season or play exhibition games, at the very least.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been given all the assurance in the world by the governor\u2019s authorized representative [Patrick C. Guerrero] that there will be a field that\u2019ll be ready. To be frank with you guys and I\u2019m not really good at being politically correct and the board knows this, I\u2019m worried and I\u2019ve expressed my concern to anyone who\u2019d listen to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Tan Ko baseball field has been out of commission since the harrowing winds of Super Typhoon Yutu damaged the facility.<\/p>\n

Santos aid the process of permitting and breaking ground will take 4-5 months and since it\u2019s already October, the earliest the Tan Ko baseball field would be ready is March if they break ground this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hopeful since July that they\u2019ve already broken ground and they\u2019ve already started but obviously that\u2019s not the case\u2026There was supposed to be a meeting between the (Northern Marianas Sports Association) and the Public Assistance Office where the GAR is at but from what I\u2019ve got from NMSA it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos added that the pipedream was that Tan Ko baseball field will be ready by the end of January, as they were planning to welcome a college team from South Korea to do their Spring training on island. He said it would\u2019ve been the perfect opportunity to scrimmage against that South Korean college baseball team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother best-case scenario is starting up a league in February to allow the national team to compete with other teams here until April and then after that further train and be prepared for the Mini Games in June\u2026That\u2019s the best-case scenario we thought would work out but we\u2019re at the whim of GAR and anyone else involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The SBL president said their woes are in complete contrast to how rivals Guam and Palau have been preparing for next year\u2019s Mini Games<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very aware of Guam and Palau\u2019s preparations for the Mini Games. Palau has a new and beautiful hybrid field with Astro-turf infield and grass on the outfield\u2026That doesn\u2019t sit well with us but we have to make use of what we have\u2026 We\u2019re very envious [with what Palau and Guam have been doing].\u201d<\/p>\n

National team tryouts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Santos, who joined the rest of the SBL board in a press conference last Thursday to present Manny Sablan as the manager of the national team, said they\u2019ve already actually met with some of the players interested in trying out for the national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m impressed with the turnout a few weeks back when around 40 showed up [during a meeting]. Some board members said these were just half the guys. The impression I got is there are guys who are hungry to compete. We could put a team made up of guys who are not only hungry to compete but also understand the importance of playing in our home turf and playing for gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this end, Santos said SBL started its national team tryouts last Saturday with strength and conditioning coach Joey Tudela.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want anybody who wants to try out for the team to get involved with conditioning. We feel like their involvement and commitment to conditioning would send a message that they\u2019re committed to this team. And by the end of December or sometime after the holidays we should be able to return and start cutting guys until we get down to our final 20. We actually are going to cut down to 30 as we have 10 alternates or practice guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Santos also realizes that since there\u2019s been no SBL season the last couple of years, a number of those trying out probably will not be in baseball shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will focus on conditioning in the next 3-4 weeks. These guys maybe in softball condition. They maybe in golf condition. We want these guys in baseball condition. Anybody can come out. We will get attendance and get everyone\u2019s contact details. You might be the best player the CNMI has ever had, but if you don\u2019t make the commitment to conditioning and practice like everyone else, then you won\u2019t make the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Tudela, who was handpicked by SBL, Manny Sablan also chose his coaching staff and they are Derron Flores and Gary Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing back to the coaching staff, we\u2019re really optimistic that they will bring these guys together into a team that will really gel and understand the importance of bringing back the gold,\u201d said Santos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saipan Baseball League is getting nervous with only a little over 220 days before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":355349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[731,473],"class_list":["post-355362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sbl","tag-tan-ko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355362","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}