Businessman-sportsman Rodolfo “Totoy” Tingzon, acknowledged as the father of youth baseball movement in the country and the whole of Asia, will be inducted into the PONY Baseball/Softball International Hall of Fame as part of the celebration of the worldwide organization’s 60th anniversary. The ceremony will coincide with the PONY Baseball/Softball Asia Pacific board meeting set January 15-17 at the Manila Pavilion. No less than PONY Baseball/ Softball International president and CEO Abrahm Key will be presiding over the conferment ceremony on Tingzon, whose contribution to the growth of baseball and softball, not only in Asia and the world, is his being the one who introduced the Little League Baseball Program in the Philippines in 1964 as well as founding PONY Baseball/Softball Asia in 1975.
The former public school teacher also founded th Philippine tot Baseball Association in the same year he organized the Little. League Baseball-Philippines.
Tingzon, a former congressman and vice governor of Laguna, who also managed the legendary Canlubang Sugar Barons baseball team to seven straight Manila Bay Baseball league Baseball League championships, is also acknowledged as the co-founder of the World Boys Baseball Federation in 1982, which, to date, counts on 44 member nations. It was also Tingzon who laid the ground works on the way PONY tournaments are conducted in the Asian region. Tingzon is the first Filipino and one of only two Asians to be accorded the honor.
Besides Key, representatives of PONY Baseball/Softball Asia member nations Japan, Korea, China, Russia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines will be attending the board meeting. The meeting, among others, will be discussing the plan of activities calendared for the year as well talk on the future site of the first ever PONY Baseball training center in Asia.
The occasion also coincides with the opening of the 15th Tot Baseball Metro Schools Baseball and Softball League.
The PONY baseball movement, since its establishment, has produced many past and present baseball stars such as, Yumori Giants slugger Takahashi, Los Angeles Dodgers closing pitcher Ishii, MLB Hall of Famer Steve Garvey of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees superstar and future Hall of Famer Alex Rodriguez, among others.
