Moore or Less: The Forgotten Baseball Prospects

By Merv Moore
Sports Director & Head Baseball Coach

My journey of a thousand miles started with a single pedal stroke. It began on the quiet, early-morning bike rides to my Little League coach’s house at 6 a.m. for tournament games that wouldn’t start until noon.

That same relentless, pre-dawn dedication became my trademark—arriving at Swiss fields by 7 a.m. for doubleheaders, and most tellingly, pulling up to the grounds in Bhutan at 6:55 a.m. only to find dozens of eager young players already there, waiting in the mist. They shared my passion. They had the fire.

I left Switzerland in 1998 proud of my achievements—transforming a national team, winning club championships—but forever curious: What could my training methods do in a full-time environment, with players who didn’t just practice twice a week?

I walked away from baseball to build a family, but the itch never left. A derailed contract in China, a month training national teams in Brunei, 17 profound months in Bhutan, and two more in Nepal—all were steps on a path whose destination I couldn’t yet see.

I grew tired of nomadic life but not of the dream, and was 30,000 feet over the Pacific when the vision clarified.

The Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club wasn’t just another project; it was the final destination. God’s plan had finally brought me back to my second home — a place where my original dream—developing elite teenage baseball prospects—could become reality.

Almost three decades ago in Switzerland, that dream was constrained by part-time players, little-league fields, and junior-high pitching. In the Philippines, the constraints are gone. What remains is a vast, untapped reservoir of talent waiting for structure, belief, and opportunity.

I have lived with these kids. They are hungry to help their families. They learn mental toughness from typhoons and earthquakes. That resilience? That’s a baseball player’s mindset.

This is the core of my belief, the answer I give to every potential franchise owner who asks why Bohol?

It’s not just about athleticism—though that is abundant. It’s about the heart forged in adversity, and the hunger to change one’s destiny. These are the same raw materials that exist in the Dominican Republic.

The Philippines already owns a storied baseball past, having won the first Asian Baseball Championship in 1954 over Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. But what is missing is the ecosystem to cultivate it—the professional league like Japan’s NPB to act as an incubator, the scout-filled academies of the Dominican Republic to identify and polish raw talent.

The Bohol Coconuts is designed to be the seed of that ecosystem. My vision extends far beyond a single club. I want to build a pipeline. With the proper training, Filipino boys can compete eye-to-eye with their counterparts in the United States, Japan, and the Dominican Republic.

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also the most clear-eyed. We aren’t just teaching a game, we’re providing kids a way out. We’re opening a door that has always been shut.

Marvin “Merv” Moore is the head coach of the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club. He has coached in both Europe and Asia, and was a founder of both the Mister-Baseball and BaseballdeWorld international baseball websites.