Happy Birthday, Mathew Gaston ( Feb 15 )

In 1979,  Among the many newcomers who have trooped to the PBA hardcourt this season, Toyota's Arnulfo Tuadles, no doubt, remains to be the heavy frontrunner. But among the freshies who, too, deserves a second look is Utex Wranglers' boyish-looking Mathew "Fritz" Gaston, a close second and another favorite for the much-coveted 1979 Rookie of the Year award.  "Playing better?" he snapped back, "I really don't know. Maybe it's because I'm training harder this time," Fritz said in an interview which took place after Utex' easy but rather bruising game against the debuting Gilbey's Gin. "Yeah, I'm 22, are you trying to pry on my credentials?" he quipped with a grin, "No, I'm just kidding. I'm taking up AB General Studies, please don't mistake that for International Studies, at the Ateneo. I hope to finish the course." Gaston, a 6-0 guard, a southpaw who has a fine built, an excellent attitude towards his game, a prodigious sense of court-generalship, at the rate he is playing, could well be Utex' most important catch in the current PBA season. "And to think that many have written finish to his caging after he disappeared from the MICAA last year with a heavilybandaged knee," stated a MICAA coach.  "I did the United States," Fritz said, "in fact, I didn't see action in the second round of last year's MICAA. My knee was troubling me. The pain was off and on. So I decided to take a complete rest." For several months, Fritz got around the States. "I thought I could come back for the World Championships. But the pain on my knee was off and on. I decided not to. I was operated last November. My family paid for the bill because Crispa refused to shoulder my operation expenses. The doctors who took care of my therapy really had things going for me. They rendered their services for free. Dr. Tyron Reyes performed my physical therapy."