The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

THE sixth Caribbean Baseball Cup concluded on Monday night with Curaçao winning the championship at the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium. 

Curaçao went home with bragging rights after defeating the US Virgin Islands (USVI) 2-1 in the championship game.

Cuba, the former champions, had to settle for the bronze medal this time around after knocking off St Maarten 2-1 in the third place game.

Theodore Sweeting, secretary general of the Bahamas Baseball Association (BBA), was pleased with how smoothly the regional baseball tournament ran in The Bahamas’ second hosting.

“I think we met and exceeded our expectations in respect of organisation. With the five teams that came to participate, we got great reviews for the organisation, bus movement and the hotel. 

“I think we rolled out the red carpet for them and they were extremely appreciative and they enjoyed the event,” he said.

In terms of competition, Sweeting said the BBA wants to pivot in a new direction to get the Andre Rodgers National Baseball facility certified for competition so that Bahamian players in the league can be approved for tournaments of this calibre.

“With respect to the game on the field, I think we learned a lot and got a full understanding of what we need to do and have to do to be successful at this level. The major thing now is for us to meet with Major League Baseball (MLB) and their facility head and they will come into our country to finalise the certification of our stadium and our field surface. Once that is done then we will have what we would call full access and approval for our MLB ball players who are playing minor league baseball and professional ball,” he said.

The Bahamas national baseball team ended the tournament with a 1-4 win/loss record and in sixth position overall. The team got a win against the reigning champions on opening night but then suffered consecutive losses against St Maarten, Curaçao, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Sweeting expressed that the MLB certification will give the BBA a larger pool of players to choose from which is essential at this level.

“We will definitely need them to be able to compete with other teams at this level. That is the goal now as we move into 2025 to make sure that is completed along with our governmental partners which would be the Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Works and National Sports Authority so we can have full access to our players. We will then definitely have a product that our Bahamian people will appreciate, love and want to see,” he said. 

The Bahamas’ national baseball team featured a mix of veteran and younger players on the roster at the Caribbean Baseball Cup.

The country has steadily climbed the World Baseball/Softball Confederation (WBSC) rankings to currently sit at no.47. With that being said, Sweeting said another goal of the BBA is to invest in a senior league programme going forward.

“The next item is for us to reinvigorate what we call our senior league programme and get it up to  what we call at least a rookie ball level initially and continue to grow from there. We got to get a lot of the young men that are coming home from college and finished playing ball but still want to play baseball at a high level…The goal for the federation is to finalise the agreement with the use of the stadium and then to implement a senior baseball league to keep our young men in shape and in preparation,” he said.

The BBA is now gearing up to host the U15 Caribbean Baseball Cup in December. Officials will name a team and coaching staff in upcoming weeks.