LOS ANGELES — Moments before Manny Pacquiao’s much-ballyhooed ceremonial pitch last Thursday, adviser Joe Ramos told the Filipino puncher about the huge crowd that will turn up at Angels Stadium to see him throw a baseball.
“There’s going to be 45,000 fans at the stadium, Manny,” Ramos told Pacquiao.
“Pacquiao, who fights on Saturday at Staples Center, was not awed by the prospects of being at the center of attention.
It was reminiscent of how the unsinkable Joe DiMaggio reacted when told by his wife, the blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe, was received when she visited the US troops in the 1950s.
Monroe gushed upon her arrival and told the baseball great how the troops reacted in her presence.
“(Joe) You’ve never heard such cheering,” Monroe told the New York Yankee slugger.
To which DiMaggio replied: “Yes, I have.”
This was virtually the same reaction Pacquiao showed Ramos, who was joined in the trip to Anaheim by the fighter’s friend from General Santos City, Clem Asencio, Ramos and associate Jayke Joson, who dabbled as the group’s cameraman as well.
Ramos said the credit goes to Pacquiao’s new promoter Gary Shaw and publicist Fred Sternburg for enabling the 26-year-old southpaw to become the first Filipino to pitch in the major leagues.
Pacquiao, who played baseball during his elementary days at Saavedra Saway in GenSan, said he still enjoyed every bit of his experience in throwing a fast ball for the Angels, who went on to post a 3-0 shutout of the Athletics.
“It was an experience I will never forget in my life,” said Pacquiao, who incidentally played the position of a pitcher during his school days.
The jersey, cap and the ball that he threw are with him and he plans to someday show it to the public in a museum alongside his myriad of championship belts, trophies, plaques and other mementos.
