• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 10 / 29 / 2010

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By Alistair McInnis - Prince George Free Press. Published: October 28, 2010 11:00 AM. Updated: October 28, 2010 3:31 PM. When Cuba commits to a baseball tournament, the competition tends to follow its footsteps.

That was one message put forth by 2011 World Baseball Challenge (WBC) co-chair Jim Swanson on Tuesday at the Prince George Chamber of Commerce. Swanson didn’t list the other teams interested in competing while he stood in front of media, city delegates and WBC committee members during a press conference. He noted that some programs continue to complete year-end planning and budgeting sessions, and he didn’t want to release that information until those meetings have passed.

Swanson made no secret about his purpose behind a visit to Cuba from Nov. 23 to 27. He wants the Caribbean nation competing in the tournament next July.

“It’s a very important part of the puzzle and you find traditionally and historically that when Cuba says yes, then a couple of countries say yes,” Swanson said. “That really turns up the heat on the entire event and gives it additional profile and additional quality, which is exactly what we’re trying to get done here.

“I’d love nothing better than to come back from the trip and tell you guys on Monday (Nov. 29) that it happened. That would be ideal and that’s our goal. But if they need to go back through meetings with their federation, we’re not going to rush them to the point that we push them away. We can wait into January and February and be comfortable with that.”

Three other committee members will join Swanson in Cuba – Shawn Rice, Virginia Sprangers and Paul Clermont. Rice is the co-chair and marketing director, Sprangers is the international protocols and tourism director, while Clermont acts as the tournament’s transportation director.

The trip will mark Clermont’s first visit to Cuba.

“I’m ecstatic about the possibilities of this trip. You have no idea. It’s exciting. It’s the first time I’ve ever been invited by a group, and being one of the sponsors of the trip as well, I see it as being a positive,” he said. “You get Cuba and the door really does open up and I understand that. You get Cuba and then you get Japans, and Venezualas and the Puerto Ricos and just all these other teams that want to be there, so it will change the dynamic of this tournament.

“It’s going to be a great trip, but it’s also going to be a very focused trip. We have to get this done.”

Also travelling to Cuba to meet with the Cuban Baseball Federation is Andre Lachance, the manager of baseball operations for Baseball Canada, who’s based in Ottawa.

Clermont is leading a campaign to gather baseball gloves, helmets, bats, new baseballs and other equipment. During their visit to Cuba, the contingent will present individuals in the baseball community and children in the country with the gear and baseball cards. Anybody interested in contributing can drop off their equipment at Custom Edge Sports on Ogilvie Street.

“It’s really a drive in the community. The good, the old, the ugly. It doesn’t matter, we’ll go through it,” Clermont said. “The kids there don’t seem to have a lot of access to it because they don’t import much from the States, of course. They still have that relationship that doesn’t exist.”

Clermont’s role for next year’s tournament will once again be focused around getting participating teams to the competition site and city. For the 2009 WBC his company, Northern Spirit Transportation, provided teams with chartered bus rides from major centres to cut down on travel costs. Team Canada received a lift from Vancouver, while the national teams from Germany and the Bahamas travelled on separate buses from Seattle.

During a day off in the 2009 competition, Clermont’s service provided Team Germany players transportation west of the city to spend an afternoon fishing.

“To this day, I got invites and am still in contact with a lot of people from Team Germany, Bahamas, even some of the Team Canada guys,” he said. “I actually tended to bond more with the Germans because I spent a lot of time with them.”

Swanson mentioned that they’re expecting eight teams, an increase from six in 2009. Every team from last year’s tournament, except Team B.C., has been invited back. Team B.C. filled a spot for the Beijing Tigers about a month prior to the last competition after the China-based squad dropped out, noting that they were ordered by their government to stay in their country because of fears relating to the H1N1 pandemic. Swanson said they’d use B.C. as a back-up again this time.

Other teams that competed in the 2009 WBC were Team Canada, the USA National Team, Germany, the Bahamas and the host Prince George Westcana Electric Axemen. The U.S. squad captured the title with an 8-1 victory over Germany in the championship game.

“We’re working with 11 teams right now and out of these, we’re comfortable that we’re going to have eight,” Swanson said.

A few other points outlined during Tuesday’s press conference were: Dates

The committee has set its dates for the competition. It will run from July 8 to 19. The dates have been set to fit the schedules of the teams travelling to the international tournament, which offers some explaination on why the final is a Tuesday. Citizen Field will once again play host to the games, with Rotary Field as a secondary location to hold practices and games, if necessary.

games

An eight-team tournament would result in a 30-game schedule. That marks an increase of nine from 2009, when there were 21 games.

Tickets

Beginning today, tournament passes will be sold for previous purchasers. Everybody else can buy tickets beginning Nov. 12. Tickets will be sold through the CN Centre Ticketmaster location at costs of $199 for reserved grandstand seats and $149 for general admission seats. The committee is working on different seating arrangements for 2011.


Source: www.bclocalnews.com/sports/106140488.html