Costa Rica baseball, softball bodies strike alliance to grow the sport, national teams

The Costa Rican Baseball Federation (FCB, Federación Costarricense de Béisbol) and the Costa Rican Softball Federation (FCS, Federación Costarricense de Sóftbol) have signed a cooperation agreement to increase the practice of the sports in the country and strengthen their National Teams.

Costa Rica is currently ranked 78th out of 86 nations in the WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings and is unranked in softball.

The alliance will see FCB include softball in the ongoing talks with the Ministry of Public Education that aim at introducing as many as 20,000 students to the sport.

The governing bodies of baseball and softball in Costa Rica also intend to combine forces to strengthen ties with the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

Partnership talks between the two national federations were kick-started last July at the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) project, a youth programme designed by Major League Baseball (MLB) to promote baseball and softball among youngsters in underserved communities.