From: francis@mpl.ucsd.edu (Francis C Felizardo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: More on LLBB - a different perspective
Date: 22 Nov 1992 21:43:54 GMT
Organization: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
NNTP-Posting-Host: kiko.ucsd.edu

I will be posting an article from Philippine News on Al S. Mendoza, the 
sports columnist who exposed the cheating done by the Philippine Little 
League Baseball Team. I actually know Al Mendoza. His wife Sol was the 
adviser of our high school paper (SS-LL). Al was at the time (c. 1980-81) 
the Associate Sports Editor of Bulletin Today and he used to drop by the 
SS-LL office every afternoon to pick up his wife.
 
Anyway, here's the article:

AL MENDOZA: HERO OR VILLAIN?
by Dan E. Nino, Philippine News Nov 18, 1992.

While watching Manila newspaper columnist Al S. Mendoza being interviewed 
on Channel 9 and brandishing proudly the symbolic key of the City of 
Long Beach, I wondered aloud and kept asking, "Where's the patriotism of 
this guy?"

My first impulse was to cast him aside as a villain. True, he might be a 
villain to the majority of Filipinos worldwide but he is a hero to the 
Long Beach Little Leaguers and American mainstream journalists.

Mendoza had exposed the age issue and the composition of the Zamboanga 
Little League baseball team that was eventually stripped of its championship 
crown. This fiasco besmirched our national honor. At school, Filipino 
American students are taunted. At work, our compatriots are constantly 
teased.
 
Here's a brief backgrounder on the man regarded as both a villain and a hero: 
Al (Alfonso Soriano Mendoza) is my townmate, high school classmate and 
kumpare from Mangatarem, Pangasinan. He was the editor of the Philippine 
College of Commerce's 'Ang Malaya', a student activist jailed for a day by 
Marcos henchmen, Palanca awardee [RP's Pulitzer - FCF], and adjudged winner 
in sports column writing. He is a highly principled man undaunted by the 
backlash or national repercussions his expose has created.

So whenever he is in the Los Angeles area covering sports events or simply 
on a stopover, he would always call me. That's how he values our over 
26 years of friendship. We had a long talk recently - over an hour - and 
all we talked about was the Philippine Little League furor.

He said, "You've known me since our boyhood days. You know my principles. You 
and I have a strong commitment to what is right and the truth and that is 
why our friendship survives through the years. In the field of journalism, 
we have to tell the truth even if it hurts. It's my crusade to tell the 
truth and not be blind to it. In the long run, my expose will bear fruit - 
to serve a lasting lesson, to change our attitude as a people, to not 
employ cheating as a means to an end.

I asked, "You have been quoted as having said that you lost your love for 
your country because it's a nation of cheats. Why did you say this?"

"Let me correct that," he replied. "Perhaps the television report was 
spliced to twist my views or misquote me. What I told them was that I 
exposed the truth because I love my country. I want the world to know that 
we don't condone any form of cheating. It is a lesson we have to be reminded 
of constantly."
 
I asked him pointblank why he exposed the alleged anomaly rather late.
Mendoza responded, "It's beside the point whether I exposed the scam 
yesterday or today. Our utmost concern is the validity of the allegation. 
Have we abided with international rules? Are the players' ages correct? Do 
the players and coach come from the same Little League locale?"

Mendoza said that when he begins writing his column on his computer every 
morning, his friendship with some people ends as soon as he begins pounding 
the keys.

Before he wrote the story, says Al, he received numerous phone calls, 
letters and telegrams. He was even dared that if he had no vested interest 
to protect, he should go ahead and write the truth. He verified his 
information with the Bureau of Census and Statistics, called the school 
principal of one of the boys, even talked to neighbors of a few players 
and found that one is already a third year high school student.

"I also heard complaints from some parents of the eight kids eased out 
from our team to the World Series. Imagine the anguish of the parents whose 
kids failed to make the team because the organizers selected an all-star 
team from various regions of the country," Mendoza said.

News coverage of Mendoza's reception generated a lot of interest and 
concern. Some of my friends contacted me and wanted to find out where 
Mendoza was staying in Los Angeles. "We want to lynch him," they quipped. 

"Our media fraternity back home considers me a villain but I am a hero to 
my wife and two children," he said.

I also asked if his publisher and editor had supported him on what he had 
written. "Both my publisher and my editor supported me all the way. They 
don't have vested interests to protect, business or political. That's why 
I admire them. That's why I'm sticking with the Inquirer. I had an agreement 
with them that they should not touch my column because it's my prerogative 
to write my opinion," he told us.

Manolo Inigo, sports editor of the Inquirer does not share Mendoza's views 
but he (Inigo) cannot touch Mendoza's column.

Mendoza said the Little League kids should not be blamed. "They have 
already been subjected to too much pressure and strain," he lamented. "But 
on the other hand, the kids should have reacted when their ages were 
questioned."

END OF PN ARTICLE.

Comments welcome.

   - Francis
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Francis C Felizardo                             francis@mpl.ucsd.edu
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 0213	      (619) 534 1085
La Jolla, CA 92093-0213