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District Administrator looks back
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Posted on Oct 11 2005
As last season’s stars of the Saipan Little League Baseball Association were honored for their efforts under the sun during the recent awards ceremony at Tan Ge Field, CNMI District Administrator James Ada looked on with a smile from the press box as chief statistician Mike Borja called their names.
After wrapping up his 25th season of participation with the local program, Ada said that the reason all went well with the SLLBA was that a number of people came together to allow the kids to have a ball on the diamond.
“One thing, honestly, I applaud the board of directors for doing a wonderful job and I extend that to the leadership of Joe Salas and the other board members. The volunteers and most especially Roque Celis Sr. and Mike Borja—the people who worked behind the scenes taking care of all the kids’ records. It’s a tough job,” he said.
Recently Borja was recognized for his hard work through the years by being voted in as the SLLBA’s president for the 2006 season. His new duties will have the stat man and announcer ensuring that all goes well for the future all-stars that will travel to Indonesia for the Junior, Senior, and Big League Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament and Little Leaguers in Hong Kong’s venue.
“These people worked from nine in the morning all the way to nine in the evening. They are to be commended because of their love of the game. We are going to see a lot of additions next year, and as you are aware we came up with the tee-ball and we’re looking forward toward the softball,” said Ada.
Ada also spoke of reason for hope for the CNMI’s youngest players after his last meeting with the DAs from across the region—one that could involve new digs designed for tomorrow’s Major Leaguers.
“On another note, in our last board meeting last month we are getting our funds from Major League Baseball and hopefully if those efforts with [them] and with our administration and with our legislators we will be able to come up with a state-of-the-art facility for our players in the Commonwealth,” he said.
