PBA Press Corps Awards Night
September 2, 2008

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank Nelson Beltran and the PBA Press Corps for the kind invitation to speak tonight. I know it has been some time since I’ve frequented gatherings with the Press Corps and tonight is a particularly special evening.

First I’d like to congratulate Santa Lucia Realty for their Championship. Buddy (Encarnado), I know it may have been some time coming but the rewards for something hard earned are always sweet. And it is always nice to see one of our former players do well as he successfully made the transition from basketball player to Head Coach. Congratulations Boyet(Fernandez)

I’d also like to congratulate Ginebra San Miguel for their Championship. I know it was hard to compete with all the media attention focused on the Olympics but I am sure their title was just as sweet for them.

(Photo from Sun.Star Cebu)

Calling all High School students who love sports! This Sept. 27, the Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC), together with Hapee Toothpaste, will hold a Sports Quiz at the Ayala Center Cebu. The grand prize winner gets an Asus Eee PC while the 2nd placer receives a cell phone—all these apart from having your name splashed on newspapers and appearing on SkyCable’s Blue Info Club Channel 45. How does the contest work? Simple. A maximum of 30 high-schoolers will be asked dozens of sports questions with the highest-pointer the winner. If you’re interested, email me at [email protected].

Roger Federer. He’ll win his 5th straight US Open title today. Wow! Imagine that. At this time last year, after Roger won his 12th Grand Slam title, many hailed him as “The Greatest.” But, 12 months have passed and he has yet to win another major. Until today. Against Andy (not Roddick) Murray, Roger is lucky. Though the Briton has a surprising 2-1 record against the Swiss, Roger’s not facing a leftie who’s dominated their rivalry.

Mary Stephanie Agbay

While our taekwondo jins, our amateur boxer, our swimmers, archer, diver and the rest of the 15-person RP delegation to the Beijing Games disappointed our nation, one sport and one athlete made us proud.

His name? WWW. Wushu’s Willy Wang.

Participated in a field of over 40 nations, Willy Wang joined the demonstration sport of Wushu. No, it wasn’t counted in the official medals tally but, hey, a gold medal is a glistening gold metal. And not only did Wang, 24, take home the top prize—our RP delegation won more: one silver and two bronze medals.

Tony Quisumbing, one of the closest friends of my father-in-law, Jack Mendez, sent me an e-mail two days ago. A tennis aficionado who whips his racket at the same club where Ray Patuasi, Dodong Gullas, Mark Yang and Gerry Sta. Ana strut, Tony Q. is helping organize “The 2nd Sonny Young Friendship Games.”

For those who swing forehands at the Cebu Country Club, Sonny Young was a jovial and gregarious pal. But shock of shocks, one afternoon a few years back while playing the sport he’s relished for decades, Sonny collapsed after sprinting to retrieve a drop shot—then died of cardiac arrest.

This Saturday, one of the most awaited games in RP collegiate basketball will be fought: Ateneo vs. La Salle. Between the two squads, I admit being one-sided. For eight years until first year high school in Bacolod, I wore green. And so allow me to be partisan by quoting the Vice-President of our One La Salle Cebu Alumni Association (and Balamban’s top Councilor) in his text message exhortation.

Here’s Dave Karamihan: “La Salle is in a collision course with that school over the boondocks of Loyola Heights. They relish at this opportunity to pit their basketball skills and chants against us. But more often, they fall short, and retreat with head bowed down and tails between their legs to some cave only to come out in the next showdown.

Dr. Peter Mancao, not only one of Cebu’s top cardiovascular-surgeons but also one of this city’s tops in organizing running events, has another sortie scheduled this month. Here’s what Dr. Mancao, who’ll be in the Windy City with Dr. Yong Larrazabal this October 12 for the Chicago Marathon, e-mailed me:

“The Philippine Heart Association Cebu Chapter, in celebration of World Heart Day, will be holding a 5K and 10K Fun Run this Sept. 28. The assembly area will be at the Cebu Doctors’ University Gym. Technical support will be provided by the Cebu Road Runners Club; race director is Dr. Alex Junia.

One week has passed, eight days remain. To me, among tennis’ four Grand Slams, nothing is more riotous, whopping, lively, and earsplitting than the US Open.

Nine Augusts ago—back in 1999—I was lucky to have stepped inside Flushing Meadows together with my dad Bunny and another father-and-son tandem, Paquito and Fabby Borromeo. What we saw was everything oversized: massive crowds, colossal stadiums, larger-than-life players—a Slam unlike any other.

Take Roland Garros. While the French speak a different tongue, drink champagne at side-streets and swing racquets on clay, in New York it’s brash, trash talk, Budweiser beer and the US Open hard-court.

Two nights ago wasn’t the Closing Ceremony—that was a party. After 16 days of glitch-free Olympics that showcased world-class venues and introduced the warmth of the Chinese army of 1.5 million volunteers, the XXIX Games ended the way it began: with fireworks. For who, but our giant neighbors, can invent pyrotechnics that form the five Olympic rings on air? Or, at the program’s start, show the numbers “9,” “8,” “7,” all the way to “1” using the black night as canvas and fireworks as the paintbrush?

What a celebration! Compared to the formal walk of the 10,000-plus athletes during The Opening, the other night was a reggae, a fiesta, a gala, a carnival. When the Olympiads were called, they paraded inside the Bird’s Nest with no sequence, like little ants, mixed among nations, embracing, arms-locking, many donning gold medals on their necks.