{"id":282300,"date":"2018-08-15T06:06:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T20:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=282300"},"modified":"2018-08-15T06:06:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T20:06:32","slug":"tan-ko-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tan-ko-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tan Ko\u2019 passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"
CNMI Sports Hall of Famer and baseball legend Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios passed away yesterday. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CNMI baseball lost a legend yesterday following the death of Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios.<\/p>\n

According to his grandson A.J. Murig, the CNMI Sports Hall of Famer died of natural causes at his residence in Chalan Kanoa yesterday afternoon. He was 89.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lived a full life, dedicating his time to baseball and the church. We will definitely miss him and will carry on his legacy in baseball,\u201d said Murig, who recalled learning from his grandfather how to do baseball statistics when he was just 10 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cTan Ko\u201d was the man on the press box of the baseball field named after him, keeping the game\u2019s scoresheets since the beginning of the men\u2019s baseball league (former Saipan Major League and now Saipan Baseball League) in 1982 until 2006. However, he started doing baseball records earlier\u2014in the 1950s when he returned to Saipan after studying in Palau\u2014and his neatly written scoresheets and players and teams\u2019 statistics served as proofs of the rich history of baseball, not only in the Marianas, but in the entire Micronesian region.<\/p>\n

Some of Palacios\u2019 well-kept statistics are found in the book Saipan Baseball From The Beginning he co-authored with KSPN news director Bob Coldeen, who was among the members of the CNMI baseball community that gave tribute to him.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Tan Ko\u2019 was one of my first friends on Saipan, a true gentleman and wonderful person whose selfless devotion to baseball was unparalleled in Micronesia. A true legend,\u201d Coldeen said.<\/p>\n

SBL coordinator and fellow CNMI Sports Hall of Famer Tony Rogolifoi also had good words for \u201cTan Ko.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a baseball icon. His contribution to CNMI baseball is immeasurable. He taught me a lot about the sport, especially when it comes to keeping the game\u2019s statistics. Without him and his works, we have no baseball history and records to show. Our condolences to the family,\u201d the Northern Marianas Sports Association executive director said.<\/p>\n

NMSA, which inducted \u201cTan Ko\u201d into the Class 2005 of the CNMI Sports Hall of Fame, also took note of his contributions to the favorite sport on the islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNMSA and the entire sporting community of the Northern Mariana Islands are saddened by the passing of Francisco M. Palacios. A member of our Hall of Fame, his contributions to baseball in the CNMI and the Micronesian region are immeasurable. His memory will live on, not only on the baseball field named in his honor, but in our hearts as well. We offer our most sincere condolences to his family,\u201d NMSA president Mike White.<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune reporter Jon Perez was awed of Palacios\u2019 wealth of information in baseball that his visit to the latter\u2019s residence to take a copy of the scoresheets almost always lasted for more than one hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will sit down and discuss the highlights of the games and what record this pitcher or batter broke. He taught me a lot of baseball terms I am not familiar with, as I rarely cover baseball games back in the Philippines. It was an honor meeting him and working with him,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

When \u201cTan Ko\u201d retired from his scorekeeping duties in 2006, his son, Raymond, took over and he vowed to keep his father\u2019s legacy in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father loves baseball very much. Tonight (yesterday), although we are saddened by his death, I will still go to the press box of the \u2018Tan Ko\u201d baseball field and do the scoresheets of the game. I am sure that\u2019s what he wanted me to do,\u201d Raymond said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNMI baseball lost a legend yesterday following the death of Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios. According…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":282301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1351,26,1162,1352],"class_list":["post-282300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chalan-kanoa","tag-cnmi","tag-nmsa","tag-saipan-baseball-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}