Riccardo Schiroli in St. Petersburg
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) stand is open at the SportAccord Exhibition, hosted by the Lenexpo Complex in St. Petersburg (Russia). The booth, built on the joint efforts by theIBAF and the ISF (International Softball Federation) is also a reality thanks to the support of the NPB, the professional organization of japanese baseball.
In the afternoon of Tuesday 5/28 the demo zone was animated by hitting and pitching demonstrations organized by the WBSC. Delegates were invited to try to hit in the inflatable batting tunnel, where Team Russia softball player Ekaterina Eronina gave some clues to absolute beginners and tried to come to terms with people who had already playing experience. Delegates from baseball and softball countries (such as the USA, Korea, Japan) queued from the beginning to get a chance to hit. But also people representing countries were hit and run may not be the most popular sport action found it amusing and challenging at the same time.
The baseball and softball demonstration attracted interest also from the media. An NTV (Japan) crowd filmed some scenes of the demonstration and tried to get clues about Wednesday’s presentation f the WBSC bid to the IOC Executive Committee.
The WBSC gave out to people who experienced hitting a T shirt with the Swing for the Fences campaign logo. Many fans received as a gadget also a few balls used in international baseball and softballcompetitions.
