Baseball, introduced to Nigeria by U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s, went into abeyance after their departure until the game was revived in 1989
Association Plans to Popularise Baseball
Daily Trust (Abuja)
May 11, 2004
Posted to the web May 11, 2004
The Baseball and Softball Association of Nigeria has drawn up plans to popularise the game in several states of the federation shortly.
Baseball, introduced to Nigeria by U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s, went into abeyance after their departure until the game was revived in 1989.
Retired Col. Friday Ichide, the Chairman of the association's technical commission, disclosed the game popularisation plan to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.
Under the plan, coaches would be sent to the states to start a propagation progamme with a view to raising the game's profile, he said.
Ichide explained that six coaches had already been sent to Imo, Enugu, Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa and Ondo.
Osun, Jigawa and Benue were slated to benefit under the second phase alongside Ekiti where the game was being played, he said, pointing out that the association was poised to raise the standard.
Ichide said based on past performance, Delta, Lagos, Kwara and Niger could be regarded as the foremost baseball playing states in the country.
He said he was, however, pleased with the strides made by Imo where the game was introduced only three months ago.
Similarly, the technical commission chairman noted that Nasarawa even fielded male and female sides at the ongoing 14th National Sports Festival.
He confirmed that the association had received a lot of assistance from the U.S. since the game was revived in the country 15 years ago.
"We had 'envoy coaches' sent to us and also donations from the U.S. and the International Baseball Federation," Ichide said.
The President of the national association, retired Gen. Ishola Williams, first revived the sport in 1989 and also initiated the founding of the African chapter by 10 countries, leading to the siting of its headquarters in Nigeria.
He was also responsible for canvassing for the construction of the nation's first baseball stadium in Ilorin under the military.
