*The Philippine Baseball League strike a one-year deal with big-time sports magazine Sports Illustrated to report each month what's happening around the league.*
It is hardly
Sandross Intatano’s fault that he is not the most noticeable player in Philippine Baseball League. He goes out of his way to be noticed. A 25-year-old right-hander who pitches for the Lapu-Lapu Red Dragons,
“Sandman” Intatano can throw a baseball accurately than anybody else in the Major League, and he stands just 6 ft. tall—"two inches of which," someone once noted, "is hair." Sandross taste in clothes is provocative. He showed up for work this spring looking like he’s going to a funeral—black ranch pants, black coat, black neckerchief, black cowboy boots and black Stetson. As far as Lapu-Lapu Manager
Erwin Vadalean is concerned, "Intatano can wear a breechcloth and feathers if he wants"—so long as he mows down hitters the way he has thrown his first game of his career.
In Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, four weeks ago, “Sandman” shut out the Pulilan Steel Hawks 3-0, allowing the Hawks just three base hits. That kind of pitching should make Intatano the sensation of the young season.
Lapu-Lapu’s Manager Vadalean is not quite ready to claim the pennant—or a niche in the Hall of Fame for Intatano. "A pitcher isn't a great pitcher just because he wins his first game with a shutout," grunted Vadalean. "Personally, I think Intatano is going to be great. But let's not put the monkey on his back."
Now there are hitters around the Major League who insist that Sandross is even more sudden than
Sandy—but nobody knows for sure, because Intatano refuses to have his fastball timed. "
Koufax is one of my idols," he explains, "and I'd hate to find out that I'm faster than he is. Of course, I'd hate to find out I'm slower too." Because Sandman’s "hummer" breaks sharply—down instead of up—he has also been accused of throwing an illegal spitball. Not so, says Intatano: "I wouldn't know how. But if people want to think I'm throwing a spitter, that's fine with me. It'll keep them guessing up there, and that's what my job is all about."