Baseball has a long and interesting history in the Philippines, dating back to 1898 and its introduction by U.S. soldiers. In the 1910s and 20s, the Philippines had regular exchanges with the United States and Japan. Well known stars such as Tris Speaker, Red Faber, and John McGraw toured the islands, while Filipino players barnstormed through America. In 1934, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth hit the first two home runs at the newly constructed Jose Rizal Memorial Stadium - a ballpark in Manila that still hosts games to this day. The sport's popularity declined after World War II, but experienced a brief resurgence in the 1950s, culminating in 1954 with a first place finish at the Asian Baseball Championships. Even today there are active little league systems and collegiate circuits, and the national team slowly comes closer to qualifying for the World Baseball Classic. There's only one problem with baseball in the Philippines... nobody knows about it! Not even people in the Philippines!
I shouldn't say NOBODY. My wife's aunt Sony knew. She played high school softball in her home province of Iloilo. Now a resident of Manila, she promised to take me to a game at the historic Rizal Memorial when I came to visit. That game turned out to be the opening match-up of the 2015 UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines) baseball tournament. The home team was Aunt Sony's alma mater. She cheered for them sporadically from behind her laptop computer, relying on my wife and I to signal when she should pay closer attention to the field. In the end, the home team won 2-0 in a defensive showdown via a complete game shutout by the starting pitcher. Only one fly ball, for either team, made it as far as the outfield, although several sharply hit grounders found their way past the dirt. The quick pace of game was exciting and, frankly, a little refreshing.
After the game, Aunt Sony convinced security to let me onto the field - first by telling them that I was a baseball blogger from America, and then by thanking them with homemade sweets. I walked over to the panels on the outfield wall commemorating Gehrig and Ruth's home runs, and I checked out the old, manual scoreboard. The guard asked if he could have a photo with me, and of course I obliged. For one shining moment it seemed like baseball was alive and well in Manila! However, when I tried recounting these events to the rest of the family, this was clearly not the case. I received puzzle looks and got comments such as "Baseball? No, you must mean soccer." (I assured them I know the difference). I looked around and noticed a complete absence of baseball in popular culture. I stepped into a dozen sports stores around the city... tennis rackets, basketballs, boxing gloves... no baseball equipment of any kind! When I pressed Aunt Sony for the reason, she told me the sport was more popular "in the province" (meaning outside of Metro Manila).
That answer was fine with me, as we were already planning a trip to the island of Bohol - not terribly far (relatively speaking) from the province where Sony played catcher for her high school team. I did a Google search and found a small number of unmaintained websites for little league and high school teams. An hour or two of online research could only confirm that baseball was played there as recently as a couple of years ago. If I was going to find evidence of baseball in Bohol, I'd have to find it on the island.
Soon after arriving, we booked ourselves a driver and guide for an all-day tour. The Chocolate Hills, the Loboc River, the tarsier sanctuary... it's truly a beautiful place worth traveling half-way around the world to visit. You'll especially enjoy it if you're a basketball fan. Everywhere we stopped - no matter how remote - had a television set with some sort of basketball game on, and each neighborhood had a makeshift court. Basketball is a great sport and I was glad to see its successful integration into Filipino culture, but I was looking for baseball and I hadn't seen anything resembling a diamond, or sandlot, or even a stickball court.
I asked our tour guide if he ever played. He said he liked the sport as a kid, but discontinued at a young age because he was left-handed and the proper gear was not available. He continued to say that many kids enjoy playing baseball in Bohol, but the lack of fields, equipment, and organized teams at a higher level discourage them from pursuing the game past adolescence. I asked him where kids played, because we hadn't passed a baseball field all day. He pointed out that schools and recreational facilities aren't able to have separate fields for baseball, soccer, etc. Most have just one large grassy area that they use for everything. We pulled over at a nearby school and he pointed out the large field. I walked over to a corner and immediately imagined a home plate and some chalk foul lines. There was no doubt about it. I was looking at a baseball field. I just wasn't able to see it until now. 
I returned to Manila feeling a little better. My wife and I discussed bringing a few left-handed gloves on our next visit. But something was still missing. There WAS baseball in the Philippines. I had seen it myself. It had been there for 117 years and counting. Yet it was hidden and largely unknown. I longed to see one reference to it in everyday life. It finally happened on our last day. It came in the form of a boxed fruit drink for kids. The packaging for each flavor featured a child engaged in a different sport; soccer, basketball, volleyball, and yes... baseball. It was only a package of fruit juice - one product out of a million Filipino products - but it felt significant. It was a sliver of acknowledgement that baseball exists. If there's one thing that being a lifelong baseball fan has taught me, it's to embrace small victories. You may get beat 20 to 1, but at least you can say it wasn't a shut out. With this juice package, baseball was on the scoreboard. For a more complete history of baseball in the Philippines, read this article.
Photos by Danial Orange unless otherwise noted: 1. a segment of the outfield wall at Rizal Memorial Stadium; 2 & 3. the field and scoreboard at Rizal; 4. the kind of basketball court that appears in every neighborhood in Bohol (photo found online); 5. an all-purpose field outside of a school in Bohol; 5. a close-up of a handbag made from juice packets that had been stitched together.
