sports

Opening night of the National Junior Baseball Tournament, which every year attracts a bunch of professional baseball scouts and not enough talent hunters for the NCAA programs, was a dreadful display this year. The best part of it wasn’t the baseball as such, but --- as part of a ridiculously long and moreover delayed inauguration ceremony --- the throwing of the first pitch by the stunningly foxy renowned swimmer, Eileen Coparropa.

Panama Metro may be, in the historical and demographic sense, the team to beat. But they put on an ugly display on opening night. As in, committing three errors and allowing two unearned runs in the top of the first inning --- and it didn’t get any better.

Usually when somebody beats Panama Metro for the national junior championship it’s Chiriqui. As this belated article was written, they were at the top of the standings with a 4-0 record. And on opening night the excellent shutout performance of Chiriqui’s southpaw starting pitcher, Eliécer Navarro, effectively made the counterpoint to the Mets’ ineptitude.

You don’t to judge a team, much less a baseball season, by one game. But as these words were written the average for all games in this tournament was running at more than four errors per game.

After opening night the tournament headed mostly to the Interior. Several teams --- Colon, Darien, Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui and Chiriqui Occidente --- won’t be playing any first round games on their home fields, and most of these won’t play at home at all. Blame it on the government (past or present), or the fans, or the sparse corporate sponsorship, but several of the fields are unfit to use, and on the other hand the Baseball Federation wants to reduce the wear and tear on the field at the Rod Carew National Stadium, which despite the unresolved traffic and parking woes is still by far the best baseball venue in the country, and at David’s Kenny Serracin Stadium, arguably the second-best venue.

Look for the first-round baseball schedule day by day in The Panama News calendar. And even if opening night was horrible, take in some ball games this season. Odds are that you will see several future professionals, and maybe one or two who will make it to the big leagues for more than just a game or two.

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