College boys in professional base-ball

Title

Language

English

Source

The Sports Review Volume I (Issue No. 2) April 18, 1931

Year

1931

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Page 4 Doming Cepeda The SPORTS REVIEW ~1pril 18, 1931 College Boys In Professional Base-Ball \Vilson Club Has Monopoly Of Rah-Rah Clouters by R. G. HAWKINS greatest all-around ·athletic star the Philppines has developed who has played ball in fast company for over ten years; Domingo Cepeda, lanky third sacker for the Wilson club who joined the professional ranks when he bolted the U. P. Varsity nine following a mix up with his coach; Juan Acuna, who preferred to pursue a ball-playing career to a college education, and who is now being groomed to replace "Old !\Inn" Regis as a first sacker on the Wilson team; Ramon Echem, pitcher1 and mainstay of the Ateneo nine whose graduation last March induced him to join the professional League. Up to two or three years ago one Machan,covertecl in the outfield for one of the professional teams. A lawyer by profession, a college coach by avocation, he played baseball in between his law practice and his coaching for the love of the game. Lefty Santos former U. P. slab artist and Olympic ' star finished college and allhough graduated in Den tis try is playing for the Wilson nine. His performance has been fair to dale. For the most part these college men have ta_ V. Santos Grad1.iating usually spells lhe death knell for the athletic career of most college trained huskies of the diamond. After the varsity star leaves the college campus behind, little chance is afforded him to continue his ball-playing .career. No inducements have been offered by the local professional league teams to entice a college man from the practice of his chosen vocation and thus he ends his athletic career when he dons his cap and gown. ken to the professional ranks because of the love which they have for the crack of the hat and the swish .of a ball. There is little, if any financial inducements which draws them to the pro ranks Under existing terms . ·the · players on most of the team,s in the Philippine Baseball League, the Big League circuit of the Philippines get seven pesos per game if the team wins or four pesos if the team comes out on the losing end. Of recent years. howcYcr, several college baseball players ha\'e found their way· to the professional ranks and indications are that in the future more and more of lhe rah-rah boys will seek to continue their pro>vess on the baseball diamond by joining some pro club. At present there are no less thari five Filipino College men playing in the local "Big Leagues" There are Juan Taduran, the J. K. Taduran Yet playing in the professional league is not all fun as the college men now playing in it can attest. Taduran, of course, played in fast company way before that hectic period when a distincton line was .drawn between professional and amateur baseball players by the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation. He was already a diamond star in 1921 when he was catcher for the Calamba Sugar Estate team. Then he per_ April 18, 1931 The _SPORTS REVIEW Pb.ge 5 formed for Fort Mills three eyes deceived him and this concerned and . never takes or four seasons_ He has been speedy little ball player struck the trouble of looking him ground in the ways of the out· three times in a-. row- u,p .afte_r a bout Fernandez pro league. the same young feller who s~ated, · however, that upon But to the youngsters who was one of the surest batters his return t-0 ~the States, he have just been recruited in- in collegiate baseball circles. will have to submit himself to the league, Cepeda Acuna No sir, playing in the local to his old contract with his Santos and Echem the going big leagues is not. easy. Yet managers, as the agreement has not been entirely rosy. Ce- these college boys like it and ties him for ano!.!Jer year. peda, for instance has Jrnd off they 're going to stick until Asked to narrate his dedays at Lhe third base posi- they get kicked out. And feat a~ the hands of Battling tion of the Wilson team and it will not be an exageration Battahno and Kid Chocolathe unmerciful razzing from to predict that in 'the future te, Fernandez was all of a the bleachers which are far two or three times more col- sudden in an uproar and the more cutting than college raz- lege men will be seen wearing best way to describe it are zing has rankle.cl bis natur~. professional uniforms even his own words: "When a Cepeda went rnto lhe Big within the next three or four man is threatened with a Leagues with an. enviable re- years. . Because even if the .45 'p0p-gun', with gansters putation as a hiller and as professional league offers no behind it, and a proposed a dependable third baseman. great financial inducements 'nice ride', unless he agrees When he left the 0. P. team the love of the game is strong to lie down, there is no alteri l went on Lhe rocks and he and the call of the diamond native but to take the safest stood out among the shining is too enticing to go unheeded way out of the mudhole. performers at the last Olym- by many of the present And this is what happened pie Gam~s Yet, he conf1d~s day youngsters in whose hands in my Battalino fight for the playing rn the P. B. L. is lay the future of local base- featherweight title of the "different". Some of that ball. world. In my bout with Chohigh spirit of elation which --+--- colate, I was suffering from co'ines over a youngster which FERNANDEZ MAKES tonsilitis and one of my blood has been catapulted into fame vessels started to trouble me and near-fame by early sue- Ramon Eehem (Continued from page 2) during the fight. I was lacess and accomplishement has himself creditably. ter taken to the hospital bebeen taken out of him and Echem, the colorful and cern to the personal welfare cause of blood poisoning." he is now a more conscientious flashy athletic hero of Ateneo, of his boys. As an exam- When pressed for his opinion ball player than he ever was has not fared as well in the pie, Fernandez cites the f ~ct as to the better boy between before pro ranks as either Cepeda that Churchill never worries Chocolate and Battalino, FerAcui'ia, who earned a re- or Acuna. In his first game on the outcome of a fight nandez unhesitatingly pronoputation in college as ·one i·n the league his sharp batting where one of his boys is unced himself in favor of the who never got ruffled, who Cuban wonder, and further sta always kept his head and his ----- ----[ ted that if they meet on the temper, has likewise found Y Q LJ R GA M E DESERVES level, Battalino would not hap laying in the professional ve a show against the "keed". league "different". Fernandez' last fight in the "I tell you, although I ~ BEST ·u. S. was against Battling can't understand why, play- ~1.e Siki whom he knocked out ing in the P. B. L. isn't like in the 5th round. playing in the amateur lea- --+-- Fernandez, returns a full gues. It looks as easy from fledged lightweight, and stathe gra11;dsland or bleachers In the re al m of tes he cannot make the fea .. but bele1ve me I have found therweight limit any more. outwhalthatterm"fast com- Sports WILSON In a short workout at the pany" means" · Olympic Stadium's Gym, Acuna, was being groomed Athletic Equipment Fernandez showed wonderby his mother and father to has won the cove- ful speed, and a terrific kick be an up and coming abo- in each mitt. He looks· a gado but thi~ good-natured ted reputation of very much improved boy and youngster stayed in college sho·wed some real class in his only .two and a half-years being the best. workout. just long enough lo develop Enrique Sto. Tomas Corinto a first class first base- tes, a local engineer, and a man. From the U. P. he Whatever game brother of Fernandez' mawen t to the bureau of cus- nager in the States, is hand~ toms where he had ·the you play insist on ling the boxer's affairs in the opportunity to improve his WI Ls o N and Philippines. playing, which he did. Once As to Fernandez' first opBobby Robinson's scouts you are assured of ponent in Philippine soil got a sight of the left handed nothing is yet known. Efforts first sacker and signed him getting the best. are being made by Bebeng up. Acuna is being kept in Gutierrez, manager and mateh reserve for the time:__which ---+-~- maker of the Olympic Staold ball fans think will come dium, to import some good soon-when "Old Man" Re- boy from either the U. S. gis will crack under the strain ATHLETIC SUPPLY (Q. or Australia. Offers have been of over twenty years of ball I ·cl Ch playing. Acuna has been gi1 . made to Ki focolate and ven several chances in the 130 T. PINPIN Al Singer, but so ar no reply has been· received. · outfield and has acquitted-~=====================::;;;;;;;;:J

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