Why ask your children to play sports this April and May? The reasons are countless. Here are eight: 1.) Pulls them away from Nickelodeon, YouTube, the PS3, Xbox360 and the Nintendo Wii. 2.) They’ll meet new friends. Maybe even find a girlfriend! 3.) You, as parents, bond with them. If, for example, you’ve long been [...]

[Read more →]

All racquets and yellow balls lead to Casino Espanol de Cebu tomorrow when the biggest clinic in Cebu tennis aces off. Last year at the Cebu Country Club, nearly 200 children and adults joined. This year? Since no charges will be assessed the participants—yes, let me repeat that: This is a free tennis clinic—then I [...]

[Read more →]

He weighed 228 lbs. “When I climbed stairs, I panted” he told me. “When I rode at the backseat of a car, I’d fall asleep. I was forever tired…” Steve Ferraren was 35 years old. His waistline was older: nearly 40 inches. And the year was 2001. But back in college, when Steve used to [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

Now that the clay-court season has started, all eyes are on one player—and he’s not named Roger Federer. He’s Rafael Nadal. The “King of Clay,” Nadal has three straight French Open trophies at home. And Roger? Well, we know he’s been losing and, thus far, hasn’t won a title in 2008. And the clay-court—which slows [...]

[Read more →]

Next week, one of the nation’s top tennis coaches will descend in Cebu. No, he won’t be here for a mere three hours or three days or three weeks—Butch Bacani will reside in Cebu for one month. At the Casino Español de Cebu along V. Ranudo St., Bacani will train children as young as five [...]

[Read more →]

One is ridden on a seat with two wheels and a handlebar; the other, on man’s dear friend with four muscular legs and a saddle. Both you climb on and dance with. Both you mount to achieve the same purpose: to propel you to move forward. Two weeks from now—the weekend of May 2 to [...]

[Read more →]

MANILA—I’m in our capital city to do three things. First, to visit our family-owned juice bar outlets. Two, I watched a concert last Thursday night by Duran Duran—with the all-original cast of Simon Le Bon, John and Roger Taylor, and Nick Rhodes. It was the best performance I’ve seen—and will write about it later this [...]

[Read more →]

The Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) is a band of 20 or so men and women whose jobs are to inform, entertain, and report to you, dear readers, the scores and facts about athletes who dunk, sportsmen like Tiger Woods who putt, and chisel-bodied boxers like AJ and Boom-Boom who score KOs. Last Thursday at [...]

[Read more →]

Not sports-related but must-be-reported-news… Heading out of the Waterfront ballroom last Wednesday night, I heard various comments: “highway robbery,” “yabag,” “they forgot their lines!” “fake,” and “rip-off.” Toto was bad. Really bad. As a start, the tickets weren’t inexpensive—the highest-priced at P3,500. In my case, with wife Jasmin and best friend Dr. Ron Eullaran and [...]

[Read more →]

The palace is a mansion. With a ballroom that can seat 500, a fine dining enclave called El Comedor, a poolside that will rival Plantation Bay, two tennis courts, six bowling lanes, two badminton courts, billiard tables, dining tables, buffet tables, and the decades-long-popular “Bar Mixto,” is there any mansion that can rival this palace? [...]

[Read more →]