This Friday, at a meeting that took place in Panama, the Baseball Association of the Americas (ABAM) was formed. Representatives of several federations that make up the newly created institution attended the event. The union aims to project Latin American baseball in the global context and create more opportunities for international competitions so that new players in the region have another stage to demonstrate their talents .
In this first meeting, David Salayandía (Panama) was elected President and vice Nemesio Porras (Nicaragua), Carlos Lee (Panama), Jedrek Magdalena (Curacao), Pedro Salcedo (Colombia), Juan Reinaldo Pérez (Cuba) and Roberto Braccini ( Argentina) were elected Vice-Presidents at the meeting.
“We came here to seek the growth and development of baseball in the region,” said Salayandia, who is also the president of the Panamanian professional league. The board of directors will have Ajax Delgado as Secretary General, Luis Villaláz (Panama) treasurer, Kodiró Miranda (Colombia) attorney, Luis Daniel del Risco (Cuba) and Carlos Van Cauwlaert will be the official spokespersons for the newly formed association.
“I am sure that many countries will want to be part of this Association, to participate and have a stage where baseball players can participate in an international tournament in the Americas, after finishing the Winter Leagues,” said Nemesio Porras, also President of FENIBA.
It was also agreed to hold the first Americas Baseball Series in Nicaragua with the presence of squads from Colombia, Cuba, Argentina, Curaçao and Panama. The selected stadiums are the Roberto Clemente in Masaya, Soberanía in Managua and Rigoberto López Pérez in León; the latter which will only be inaugurated at the end of September.
“Baseball is played in many regions of America, Aruba has already had a rapprochement, Honduras has also and Mexico has also had rapprochement. I sincerely believe that this is going to move very quickly, we want all the countries in the Americas to participate in an event like this. This is not a dispute with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CPBC), we are even looking for dates where our tournament does not clash with theirs,” Porras added at the end of the meeting.