Filipino baseball players born in the US have travelled to Sydney to lend a hand to the Philippines Baseball Team that is competing at the World Baseball Classic.
The US-born players and Philippines players met for the first time at the event and player Brad Haynal said it had been a cultural journey.
"I'm happy to meet new guys who share my Filipino heritage," he said.
Teammate Alex Songco also relished the opportunity.
"I'm going to soak it in as much as I can and hopefully win this thing," he said.
With baseball no longer in the Olympics, the Classic is the biggest international baseball tournament of the year.
The tournament includes host Australia, as well as New Zealand and South Africa and the Philippines. The winner will qualify for the tournament proper next year.
An estimated 80,000 people are from Filipino backgrounds in the area in and around Blacktown in NSW, and the team is expecting good support.
Despite baseball lagging well behind boxing and basketball in popularity in the Philippines, the current crop of players want to change that equation.
Mr Songco said that was part of the players' drive to come to Australia.
"This is why we do this," he said. "We hope to grow baseball in the Philippines to make it as big as basketball and boxing."
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