The two-day IBAF Technical Commissioner (TC) Clinic was held until August 25. It was led by Jim Baba (Canada), Technical Commissioner and Tournament Commission Chair of the IBAF, assisted by TC Koji Aso (Japan).
Following the class session at Shinagawa Prince Hotel (Photo) and official dinner on day one, the participants visited the Baseball Hall of Fame at the Tokyo Dome next morning and afterward watched a college exhibition game at the baseball ground of the University of Tokyo as test case.
Amongst the 18 participants there were two women. The Japanese eight-person contingent included two professional umpires from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The other attendees came from: Australia (3); Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand (2 each); Chinese Taipei (1)
At the end of the two-day Clinic, all of the attendees received the participation certificate issued by IBAF President.
Comments by the future TCs were very positive and included some suggestions for future Clinics, such as the use of powerpoint and video clips.
IBAF President Riccardo Fraccari remarked: “All of the IBAF officials play a critical role in ensuring that our world tournaments are played, organized, officiated fairly and with integrity… National Federations have registered a diverse group of participants. The vision shared by the Federations will help our cause in adding more highly trained baseball officials in key territories. This will serve to meet future demands for our tournaments, especially when events happen at the same time”
President Seung-Kyoo Kang of the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) was pleased with the event as it was timely held immediately before the 2012 IBAF 18U World Championship in Seoul. BFA wishes to strengthen ties with baseball in Oceania and hosting potential Commissioners from the Region was a huge first step.
“The planning by the Baseball Federation of Japan was tremendous. 18 potential Commissioners were trained” Jim Babastated “I was impressed with the interest,
commitment and desire to learn from all the participants. I feel this was a very successful start by the IBAF to build a larger base of Technical Commissioners.”
This is the full list of participants: Jim Baba (CAN), Koji Aso (JPN), Park, Ro-Jun (KOR), Son, Hyuk (KOR), Felix Yip-Kwor (HKG), (Ms.) Kitty Au (HKG), Warren Van Rooyen (NZL), Ryan Flynn (NZL), David Michael Nagy (AUS), Timothy W. Harradine (AUS), Andrew Todd (AUS), Huang, Shih-Kuei (TPE), – JAPAN- Osamu Ino, Takeshi Hirabayashi, Hirotami Kojima, Seiichi Hayashi, Eiji Ito, Tokuyoshi Kono, Yoshiharu Nagakubo, (Ms. ) Keiko Suzuki.
