~Plans to grow baseball further in the country via systematic induction and training
"VAN" (Sports Desk) :: Major League Baseball (MLB) led off the 2020 season today with the defending World Series Champions Washington Nationals playing against the iconic franchise New York Yankees. It also marks one year since the launch of the India Office for MLB which has made rapid strides to increase participation in the game, promoting the sport and league across the country.
MLB India is the sixth international office across the globe. Over this time, MLB has conducted more than 320 workshops in schools across Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru as a part of its First Pitch Program. Over 30,000 children in the age group of 8-14 years have actively participated in these sessions.
Ryo Takahashi, who heads the business and commercial operations for MLB in India says, “Outside of the USA, India is MLB’s sixth International office. So you can imagine that MLB genuinely believes that the country has all the right ingredients as far as Baseball Development is concerned. We believe in the potential and the opportunities that the sport has in India. But for the game to grow, at the grassroots level, especially at the youth level and eventually at an elite level, building a baseball ecosystem will be crucial, and it starts with quality coaching. Participation is equally important but without proper coaching, it is difficult for any sport to grow. Our MLB First Pitch program is directed at building participation, generating content for fans and further creating opportunities for young kids to learn the game”.
From April to July 2020, MLB in association with India On Track (IOT), the Amateur Baseball Federation of India (ABFI) and the various State Associations affiliated to ABFI have conducted online interactive coaching clinics for over 1,200 baseball participants. Baseball senior players and coaches, who attended these sessions, hailed from Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“By the end of second week July 2020, we did coaching clinics for over 1200 participants through these introductory online coaching sessions”, shares David Palese, Head of Baseball Development in India. He further added, “These sessions have enabled the coaches to continue their development from the comfort of their homes in the last three months. It gave them the opportunity to learn and interact with us. This initiative was conducted with the purpose of developing and engaging with Indian coaches and supporting baseball communities in India. It also enabled the coaches to know of, learn from and interact with each other”.
As MLB celebrates the ground covered this past year, it has outlined key plans for further growth of baseball in the country. These include on-field physical Coaching Clinics, collaborating with the National and the State Baseball Associations to conduct the sessions once the current health crisis is resolved. MLB conducted three Coaching Clinics in 2019 wherein a total of 75 existing baseball coaches were trained in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, over a period of three days in each city.
MLB also plans to conduct Umpire Clinics with senior MLB umpires in coming months to train and develop Indian umpires.
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