National team to conduct free baseball clinics

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres hands out the golden bat and gift certificate to CNMI National Baseball Team player Franko Nakamura after he had the lone home run of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner last Thursday at Kensington Resort. (OFFICE OF THE CNMI GOVERNOR)

The Saipan Baseball League in collaboration with the CNMI National Baseball Team will be hosting a free two-day baseball clinic on Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16, from 9am to 3pm at the Francisco  “Tan’Ko” M. Palacios Baseball Field.

Josh Jones, John Peter Sablan, and Franko Nakamura of the CNMI National Baseball Team will be teaching the three holistic skills that are primary in baseball which are pitching, hitting, and defense. 

The clinic is limited to the first 35 players per age group for the under 18- to 16-year-old and the under 15- to 13-year-old groups.

Day 1 of the clinic will be demonstrations on pitching and defense and day two will be focused on hitting and scrimmage.

Josh Jones, winningest pitcher of the baseball tourney during the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022, told Saipan Tribune that his mission with the clinic is “to provide a fun, positive baseball experience; to provide children with positive role models at our life skills station, where we talk to them about substance abuse, stress the importance of education, and help them recognize they have the ability to make positive decisions; and, to teach young ballplayers the game’s fundamentals in a multi-station format.”

He added, “I want our kids to handle failure—doesn’t matter what sport it is and how good you are. You have to lose your fear with failure. Failure is part of the process. People who fail never try. You have to fail! You have to get it wrong to get it right. You learn nothing from winning, you only learn from your failures, and that’s how hard work and dedication takes place.” 

“It will be amazing watching a young player leave the field a better player, but more importantly, a better person overall.  Our goal is [to] build back up, preserve, and protect what is best about the game for the NMI baseball community,” said the lefty pitcher.

Separately, SBL president, Jay Santos previously told Saipan Tribune that the youth’s interest in baseball is high when the University of Guam came out for their clinic last May and a lot of children under 17 years old came out. 

Santos also pointed out the interest and excitement the youth had when they came out to watch the baseball games during the Northern Marianas Pacific Games 2022, and some were seen at the sides of the field playing catch. 

“There are a lot of young boys that want to play baseball,” said Santos. He’s hopeful that youth baseball will be up and running again soon.