Riccardo Schiroli in Quebec City
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) attracted a lot of attention at the SportAccord exhibition demo zone on Wednesday May 23 afternoon. IBAF personnel proved particularly creative in organizing a couple of baseball stations: one for hitting and one for pitching.
Many delegates were attracted to the demo zone to give a try to their capability of throwing or hitting a ball. Strangely enough, more people proved to be willing to try how to pitch than how to hit.
In any case, it was a success. Nobody had predicted that the future baseball players amongst the delegates could have reached the 2 figures and that people would have asked to add a few extra minutes to baseball time in the demo zone.
The first who tried was a delegate from Finland, who presented herself explaining she was used to Finnish baseball (Pesa Pallo), the same game that was showcased in the 1952 Helsinky Olympics.
Amongst the people who helped make it a fun half an hour, also Doctor Harvey Schiller (the IBAF President from 2007 through 2009) threw a few pitches to the net.
A crew of the japanese broadcasting corporation NHK, led by Associate Producer Makino Yukiko, filmed the whole demonstration.
One of the cameramen commented: “That was a lot of fun”.
