HE PROVED that jersey number 13 is lucky. Now, it is hanged for good.
The UST Golden Sox recently “retired” the jersey number of the late baseball legend and Golden former coach Teodulo “Lefty” Viray, who died last month at the age of 91 due to cardiac arrest.
Besides his numerous achievements as a player and later coach, Viray became famous for striking out baseball legend Babe Ruth during an exhibition match in Manila.
In a simple ceremony led by Golden Sox coach Jeffrey Santiago and other former UST sluggers last Dec. 27, Viray was remembered as the greatest baseball player that ever graced the Philippine infield.
“He was not a strict coach, but you can learn a lot from him, especially discipline,” Santiago said, who also became one of Viray’s wards during 1980s.
With a superb baseball knowledge and a sheer loyalty to the University, Viray led UST in dominating the UAAP during the late 40’s to ’90s. The school then hauled 24 titles, including eight championships that came from two “four-peats” from 1949 to 1953 (during Viray’s playing stint) and from 1982 to 1986 (Viray as coach).
“He will forever be our father and inspiration. He will not die in our hearts,” Santiago said.
After the rites, Viray’s former mentees also paid tribute to the late legend through an exhibition game.
Santiago, together with Viray’s lone son Rosan Viray, Artheus Villalon, Arseño Canlas, Joey Lao, and UST’s softball coach Sandy Barredo battled against the current Golden Sox, led by reigning UAAP’s Most Valuable Player Nikko Reyes.
Viray was also dubbed as the “strikeout king” and “messiah of the Philippine baseball,” steering the national team to its first and only Asian Baseball championship after defeating the highly-touted Japanese sluggers via lopsided score of 8-1 in 1954.
The southpaw pitcher was first recognized after leading the UST nine and All-Filipino selection to back-to-back triumphs against the West Coast Negro Baseball League’s San Francisco Sea Lions, who came to the country for a 16-game exhibition series in 1948.
In 1955, he also pitched for the All-Star Philippine baseball teams against Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, who also paid a visit to the country for two exhibition matches. He earned international recognition for striking out Babe Ruth, the Yankees’ prolific hitter.
He was also named numerous times as the Philippine Sportswriters Association’s athlete of the year, alongside Philippine Basketball Association’s Hall of Famer, Caloy Lonzaga and Herminio Silva.
Blessing in disguise
Viray honed his baseball skills under the tutelage of his father Gerard Viray, who taught him the basics of the game at a young age during the pre-war period.
But during the Japanese occupation, baseball trainer and Japanese soldier Paul Hinobe, who was appointed by the imperial government as manager of Canlubang Sugar Estate, “enslaved” 18-year-old Viray, a lefty, in 1943.
“A Japanese soldier was searching for my father at that time. My father thought that he would be killed by the Japanese because a lot of our relatives were guerillas. But later on, he was able to find out that Japanese wanted to enslave him in order to play baseball for them,” said Rosan Viray.
Hinobe spent hours training the young Lefty. It was during his stint with the Japanese that Viray’s game vastly improved, the son said. In return, he said the family was given the assurance that they would not be harmed by the imperial forces.
At 22, he played for the UST High School and became part of the national team during his fourth year. In 1960s, Viray became the head coach of the Golden Sox. He was known for his “study first, play later,” fatherly-like disciplinary style. He would tell his players that “nothing goes after UAAP, so study hard.”
Viray also used baseball as an opportunity for poor children to go to school. He would invite them to first join the team as “managers,” mainly in charge of picking up stray balls. But when they showed potential, he would eventually train and include them in the roster.
“Kailanman, hindi mapapantayan ang kantang contribution sa baseball. Sana ay hindi nila makalimutan ang kanyang naiambag,” the son said.
