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The sports junkie
THE SPORTS WORLD HAD BEEN abuzz with a deluge of news
and developments during this paper's hibernation.
Noli Eala, one of my favorite PBA annotators, is now the PBA
Commissioner. Benjie Paras, at 34, has retired from
professional basketball. Ditto with Jojo Lastimosa,
but he's not 34, maybe a year or two or three years older
than Benjie. Ginebra is languishing in the cellar
in the All Filipino Cup. Surprise, surprise.
With Menk, Limpot and Adducul? Is it the coaching?
Just asking. Red Bull, with the young guns, are leading
the pack in the All-Pinoy Conference. That's not really
news. The newly-revived and revitalized Tour ng Pilipinas
is besieged with controversies. Then there's the saga
of the faltering Lakers. All season-long, they're keeping
their fans on the edge. Are Shaq and Kobe breaking-up?
How long can a team get away with names like Devean George,
Derek Fisher and Mike Madsen in the roster?
Sports with its sprinkle of action, and drama (hysterics,
the leap of joy, the agony of defeats ) is like a drug
that you have no choice but to get fixated. But then
is it only me? Why are all of my best friends not into
sports? Why all of my co-workers would rather gossip
about the latest hook-ups and break-ups? Why, ladies?
As one of my lecturers in sports writing once said,
"sports is not that important, that is why it's not in
the front pages." But it's important to me though.
And to all others who are like me.
Like Jen and Gee. They were the valedictorian
and salutatorian, respectively, of my grade school years.
Jen went to the same high school and college with me while
Gee moved to the States when we were still high school sophomores.
Now, both live in the US; in L.A. and New Jersey, and married
to former athletes. I wasn't close with them during
those wonder years, until the past year in our high school
message boards when the subject turned into my favorite topic.
Jen can talk baseball and hockey while Gee is fluent
in NFL football. Thriving in America, they would
make great soccer moms. And they live miles and a
time zone away from me. Bummer.
If given the choice I'd rather follow sports 24 hours a day
than grind and frazzle myself in my day job. But I'll
reach that sphere some day. Today is the grinding; tomorrow
I'll be sitting pretty with the clicker. At the moment,
on with the grinding and the backbreaking workload.
As I drift along the path towards the freedom from jading
overkill, there's the internet and traditional mail.
Jen and Gee loves snail mails. And the phone, to talk
to my brothers about sport analysis.
As junkies, we're terribly happy when our team or favorite
player wins the coveted trophy. If they don't, there's
always next time. Too bad, there is no more next time
for Pete Sampras. But then what a career. Although Tiger
Woods placed only 15th in the recent Masters, he still has
tons of next times. I'm just tearfully grateful that
I get to see him play on television. Every year, I keep
on hoping that the Atlanta Braves would win the World Series
and I'm always disappointed. But I move on.
There are also the specialized sports enthusiasts. We can
say that Pinoys are really specialized in basketball. Our
passions are known to be basketball, showbiz, and politics.
Not necessarily in that order, as usual. Speaking of
basketball, the men like the action. For the ladies,
is it the pretty face or the skills? Because most women
of my generation whom I know followed basketball have now lost
interest. Or maybe there are other things more important
than seeing grown men grapple for the round ball.
Then there's also my affections extending to snooker.
Just that I want to know the personalities that battle Bata
and Django come July during the World Pool Championships.
The tournament is held in Wales every year and they give free
passes to some snooker players who are mostly from the British
Isles.
I also love watching gymnastics, figure skating, volleyball,
bowling, everything. And equestrian is quite fun, though,
it's just preening over. A horse is not only costly
but scary. However equestrian did give us
a gold medal in the Asian Games. I guess as Pinoys
we should be more articulate in "sports-a-nese,"
as a dear friend put it, paraphrasing Willow from Buffy. Remember,
we're still searching for that elusive Olympic gold medal.
More interests herald more chances. Or we could contribute
in our country's sports programs. How? That I'm
slowly delving my fingers on. *
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