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'Shame sports', a jewel in the history of journalism in Panama

In Santiago, during a summer of 1970, the breeze whipped the great cashew tree. There, under their shadows, sitting in front of us, on a stool, was Avelino (my brother) narrating the events that had led to the defeat of the Veragüense youth baseball team against Los Santos, in the Santa Rita stadium in the city ​​of Panama. They were the first National Children's Games in Panama.

The symphony produced by the cashew tree was mixed with the sobs of the participants in this gathering, because that defeat had shaken the entire town of Veraguas... and what the breeze recorded under Avelino's voice was the following:

“I open the episode with hits; I get to first base; I take second base by pick - the batter is out at first - and I steal third base. We are losing one to nil and one out; the next batter is bowled out. We have two men on base: first and third. I am at third and a teammate at first base, the director Ramiro Villasanta puts a pinch hitter Ángel Solanilla ('Gelo'), the most corpulent of the Veraguas children's team.

A silence invades all those present because my brother does not support the emotion; and it is here where the drama unfolds, since it seems that the team from Veragüense sees the triumph on the front page. The instructions for my brother were to hit and run and get to home plate. The coach from third was Lic. Roberto Rodríguez; In addition, a photographer with his Pentax 33mm lens was getting ready to record the victory of the Veraguenses. That photographer was Demetrio Romero Wong. And Avelino continues:

“Ángel Solanilla, on the third pitch hit the right field, which clearly for me was going to be a home run. The gardener backwards; there was a tumult of earth and he fell, but before he fell he made a big league catch, and we all thought he hadn't caught it, at least I, who was already reaching home plate, should have come back and didn't have time to do the 'stomping' and run'; all this in less than a minute. There was the tie, and the possibility of leaving Los Santos on the field. The next batter from Veraguas struck out and we couldn't drive home, giving the victory of the children's championship to the Los Santos team”.

At the end of the narration there was no participant who did not cry, due to the frustration and collective sadness for not having won that game with the most fighting and hardened children's team that the province of Veraguas has had in its entire sports history.

When he was defeated, the following happened (Avelino tells us): “I believe without fear of being wrong that I was the first to cry, and I didn't know where to walk; I only saw the booth and the bench where I sat in a corner and they arrived: Samuel Hernández, Rodrigo Luque (RIP), Cesar 'Ñato' Serrano, Ángel Solanilla, Miguel 'El sordo' Rangel... seeing me cry we all started to mourn; It was there when they took that immortal photo that has remained for posterity”. Photographer Demetrio Romero Wong saw the drama unfolding, following Avelino's footsteps with his Petax 33mm lens and immortalizing in a historic image the disappointment of some children who pursued the long-awaited triumph until the last minute.

A jewel in the journalistic history of Panama

Rodrigo 'Cañita' Correa approaches the photographer Romero Wong and asks him if he had taken the photograph, and they run to the office of La Crítica de Panamá, where the photograph is published with the title 'Shame on sports'.

The next day, the doctor and journalist Carlos Rangel writes an article where the defeat is highlighted, emphasizing the courage to achieve victory. The article is presented, for the second time on the front page, with the photograph of Romero Wong and the title 'Shame on sports'.

In an event with historical importance, important situations converge that make that moment unrepeatable and unique. In addition, it is necessary that the facts that make it up contain values ​​of high evocative content, of collective advancement and teaching for future generations. 'Sports shame' contains all the elements mentioned above, being one of the journalistic jewels that have extolled Panamanian journalism. Sustaining itself through time without any propaganda artifice.

the historic photograph

Journalist and photographer Demetrio Romero Wong -from a humble family in the village of Punta Laurel, in Bocas del Toro- arrives in Panama City at a very young age and makes his journalistic profession with the same humility of those characters included in the "Marco Escuela ” of the radio La Voz del Pueblo, of the forgotten Modesto Lombardo Vega exercising (Demetrio) with the desire to emerge in the difficult meanders of communication. As the author of the photograph 'Vergüenza Deportiva', it was his keen intuition that allowed him to capture this beautiful image.

Romero Wong portrays children crying, with an interest never imagined, because the photographic work, beyond capturing the drama of adolescents, crudely bare the crucial moment of disorientation of the moment, the emptiness of defeat, loneliness individual and shared suffering.

The image becomes a work of art, because Romero Wong placed on the pedestal of Panamanian photography the feeling of deep tenderness and solidarity towards the suffering of the most fragile in our society. That is why this photo deserves to be placed among the jewels of our artistic production in Panama. A well-deserved recognition to the photographic work to settle the debt with the author of this wonderful artistic piece.

Closing reflection

Those summers when the trees full of cashews swayed by the sweet little winds of the mountain range, the gatherings about the participants in the baseball team filled us with hope and filled the plains of the surrounding fields, with little ballplayers, who played with baseballs. gutta-percha, black macano bats and cardboard handles, with the hope of being called up to the national team and defending our province with nobility.

There, under the cashew tree, Avelino ended the conversation by telling us the following: “The Public Relations Office of the National Guard had that photo enlarged and placed in all the stadiums and places where sports were practiced throughout the country, with the title of 'Sports Shame'” and the hearts of all those present beat energetically, above all the players of the children's team.

In posthumous memory, those children were the seedbed of the most combative Veraguas teams in the history of national baseball and of the best trained players in a technical sense, with generosity and camaraderie. All of them, coming from the ardent flame that characterizes the remote provinces of the interior and the motivations that a defeat produced, resulted in a tender photograph and an accurate article, which exposed the feelings that exist in the deep heart of every Panamanian.

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