It never hurts to dream big and work hard.
“Alfredo Olivares Jr., 22, of Barangay Malate in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija is the first-ever Filipino baseball player to be recruited in a farm team in Japan, a baseball powerhouse and breeding ground of such greats as former Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo, Kasuhiro Sasaki, Koji Akiyama and all-time home run leader Sadaharu Oh,” reports The Manila Times.
The report explained: “Nomo is known as the first Japanese player in the US big league since Masanori Murakami in 1965, blazing a trail for such other stars as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.”
Olivares passed rigid try-outs earned a slot in a semi-professional baseball league—the Shinano Grandserows Baseball Club (SGBC), a young squad founded in 2006 based in Nagano Prefecture in the six-month, six-team Baseball Challenge League (BCL).
Olivares will leave for Japan on May 8.
Photo from MorgueFile
