BAGUIO CITY—Tickets sold out. That means, practically, all of Metro Manila’s cage buffs will troop to the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City today to watch the week’s biggest show in town.
Unfurl the balloons.
Pour San Mig beer all over. (We are not champagne guzzlers, you know.)
Bang the bells.
Unless the gods of the game disallow it, which will never happen, or Digong Duterte might make a U-Turn as to suddenly quit his much-awaited presidential bid, a new University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball champ will be crowned before the day ends.
As it has become obvious that I could not cover the game live in Pasay City, I will console myself by making do with what’s available here. TV, what else?
Anyway, as I took a break writing this here at the secretariat of the ongoing 66th Fil Am Golf Championship, I bumped into Edmund Yee, who starred in the seniors championship last week as his team’s top performer.
I’m not surprised. Edmund has always been athletic. “Hey, Al, because of you, the wounds of our 1979 UAAP championship loss to Far Eastern University (FEU) had been reopened,” he yelled on Monday from the practice putting green of the Baguio Country Club. “Your story of our bitter defeat was resurrected by Spin.ph today.”
It’s been 36 years, so that you can’t blame me if I had forgotten all about it?
Edmund Yee said I covered the University of Santo Tomas (UST)-FEU 1979 UAAP Men’s Finals while I was still a Bulletin Today sportswriter. (I left the Bulletin for the Inquirer in 1986, where I retired in 2006 to become a “full time” free-lance columnist. Tiresomely? Today, I write for six newspapers and one magazine, churning out at least 11 columns and one editorial a week. I don’t know how I’m being able to do it, but this routine has been on for almost a decade now—with much success [ahem!]. For this, I can only think of one reason: By the grace of God. With Boss Tsip Pareng Jess by your side, nothing’s impossible. His will be done.
I said to Edmund “What did Spin.ph say about my UAAP Finals story in 1979?”
“Reuben Terrado, who told me he is your wedding godson, wrote the Spin.ph story today, quoting from your 1979 piece on how we lost the title showdown to FEU,” Edmund said.
In that story of mine, I wrote that FEU easily defeated UST for Tamaraw Coach Turo Valenzona’s fourth UAAP men’s seniors crown. The victory was almost a foregone conclusion because 6-foot-4 Ed Cordero, Edmund’s teammate and UST’s pillar (Cordero would proceed to become a Toyota standout in the Philippine Basketball Association, was down with flu and did not play.
“Had Ed been around, it would have been a different ballgame then,” Edmund said. “I just hope that UST’s top guns this time, like Kevin Ferrer, Louie Vigil and Ed Daquioag, play healthy on Wednesday to ensure a good fight against FEU.”
With UST’s huge 3-1, win-loss edge over FEU in the current season, the Tamaraws might find it hard to turn the tide against the Growling Tigers today. UST’s Game Two 62-56 triumph itself that forced a Game Three decider was something carved out in stone: Classic in Tchaikovsky fashion.
It’s been 36 years since the two teams fought for the crown. While that 1979 Finals game had a one-sided result in favor of FEU, I expect a pretty close fight today. And the one with the Apec-tight defense up to the very tearful end will win it—surely.
THAT’S IT. Here’s a glass to the Baguio Country Club-based secretariat for its smooth-as-silk job of running the daily operations of the ongoing 66th Fil-Am Golf Invitational presented by San Miguel Corp. and backstopped by Toyota (two Wigos as hole-in-one prizes, two Wigos as raffle giveaways). Take a bow guys and dolls: Andrew Pinero, Roanne Galicia, Glaiza del Rosario, Melo Mejia, Mae Bilog, Chino Cortez and Abdullah Mastura. They are being supported by OJTs Romeo Bustillo Jr. and Ariel Andres of Colegio de Dagupan; June Alvin Ocampo, Dave Valdez, Rod Limos, Rian Christian Galsim, Lawrence Sebastian and Nomar Samson of University of Pangasinan; Diosdado Bandong Jr. of Virgen Milagrosa University; Marinella Sergie Dagatan of Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University; and Amber Grace de Leon of Remnant International College. Kudos, too, to tournament nurse Aster S. Lat-iw. Of course, extremely proud of them are BGC General Manager Anthony de Leon, who cochairs the tournament with Camp John Hay General Manager Tim Allen. Cheers!