The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT IS not how you start, nor how you get there. Most importantly, it’s how you finish.

• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in local sports, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

THE recent World Baseball Classic Qualifier was a prime example why this long-standing dispute between the Bahamas Baseball Association and the Bahamas Baseball Federation should be resolved.

To have nine players suited up to play for Great Britain should cause all of the leaders in the two organisations to finally come together for the betterment of the sport and do what is in the best interest of the sport and call it a truce.

Leave the politicians out of it because it seems as if Minister of Sports after Minister of Sports have not been able to intervene and resolve the dispute.

It’s one thing to say they have made some inroads, but it’s another when one considers that it appears that nothing has been done because there has not been any resolution.

Both sides are claiming that the Bahamas Olympic Committee has the power to simply state that one body over the other has the international sanction and that should suffice. Well, the BOC has done that. They have recognised the BBA.

So again, there’s the age-old question: Why can’t this matter be resolved?

On top of that, if we have moved from two players two years ago to just about a whole line-up, with the exception of a pitcher this year, there’s no reason why the Bahamas’ flag should not be flying high at the qualifier.

Jim Wood has been dead and gone and there is virtually no activity coming out of the BBA, which has reportedly been handed down to some of his family members. So the question in everyone’s mind is why does the association still hold onto the sanctioning.

Unless the association is dissolved, the BBA will remain the governing body for the sport.

Yes, the BBF, now under the presidency of Teddy Sweeting, should be commended for the role they are playing in keeping the sport alive. They have done a massive job in pushing the sport forward.

All nine of the players who represented Great Britain in Brooklyn, New York, are products of the federation, either in New Providence or Grand Bahama. Had it not been for the BBF, some of those players might not have gotten the exposure to be where they are.

But that doesn’t change the one fact that will continue to be debated: Who has the international sanctions for these players to be able to excel under the country banner?

The BBA.

We can debate this issue over and over, but until the powers that be decide that they will no longer recognise the BBA as the governing body, the players in the Bahamas will continue to be disenfranchised.

So why can’t the leaders of both the BBA and the BBF come together around the table without the external influences and decide once and for all how they can tackle and resolve this issue once and for all.

I’m sure that those nine players and even those who are in the wings waiting to get their chance to represent the Bahamas would be appreciative of a unified body rather than being a victim of this dispute that has been going on before some of them were even born or began playing the game.

The Bahamas Government is investing in the construction of a new national baseball stadium and it would be a crying shame if the facility is completed and this dispute is still lingering on.

NO CHRIS BROWN INVITE

For another year, Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown has had to make the painful decision to cancel his Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational.

Once again, Brown has indicated that the lack of funding from the Bahamas Government has forced him to call it off instead of trying to make a push at the last minute to pull it off in April.

With the Bahamas Government making a commitment to hosting so many international events next year, one can understand the dilemma that Brown finds himself in, considering the fact that he was assured by Minister of Sports Dr Daniel Johnson that they will support him.

Not only is it difficult to get the support from government, but Brown has realised that the corporate citizens are more inclined to throw more of their support behind the government-funded events.

So it’s no wonder that he has gotten the recognition as a promoter to go to Grenada and assist in the organisation of their first international meet that will be held in April. Brown, who is nearing the end of a long and illustrious career at the age of 37 next month, has indicated that he would prefer to be here at home promoting his own event, but without the financial backing, he is willing to lend his expertise to our neighbours in the south.