Sadaharu Oh, 73, President of the World Children’s Baseball Foundation and former Tokyo Yomiuri Giants great who slugged 868 carrier home runs, in announcing the 23rd WCBF in Fukui Prefecture from August 18 -26, reiterated the need for baseball/softball community to do everything they can for the next three months to reinstate the sports to 2020 Olympics and hoped that the event in Japan will serve to send out strong message to the world.
For the first time in WCBF’s history, Children from Bhutan and Nepal are invited in addition to Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Thailand, U.S.A. and the host Japan.
The girls and boys 10-11 years old will learn from nine IBAF veteran coaches to play baseball and participate in cultural and other sport events to create goodwill and friendship.
Children’s baseball teams from Chinese Taipei and Korea will play friendly games with 12 teams in Fukui Prefecture.
The nine IBAF nominated coaches are: Angel Bonilla (Head Coach), Peter Caliendo (Subhead Coach) and Robin Wallace from U.S.A., Edgar Perez (Puerto Rico), Darwin Barker (Canada), Martijn Nihoff (Netherlands), Mathew Sundstrom (Australia), Yoshihisa Uchikawa and Daishin Nakamura of Japan.
The WCBF inaugural event was held in Los Angeles in 1990, and nearly 5000 participants – boys and girls, 10 and 11 years old – from 89 countries/regions, have attended this global event.
