Bleacher Talk

La Salle Cebu Goes Bad Results! It was a Green day as the La Salle Green Team smothered the La Salle White Team to win the over-all championship of the “LA SALLE goes BAD! The 2nd President's Cup Badminton Tournament” of the One La Salle Cebu Alumni Association (OLSCAA) Relying on the undefeated run of three of its doubles teams, The Green Team outscored the White Team, 19-5, in the one-day dual meet tournament. Leading the attack was the Level B pair of Deo Dumaraos and Jason Co which was good for a perfect six points coming from two straight-set wins over their Level B counterparts. The Green’s other Level B pair of Chinky Cortez and Pepi Martinez were good for four points. Meanwhile the Green Team’s Level A pairs were good for nine points with the pair of Martin Ledesma and Dr. Leo Jiao registering five points from a straight set win and another three-set win. The other Level A pair of team captain Gerry Malixi and Gabby Cruz contributed four points to the Green’s winning cause....

Bleacher Talk October 28, 2007 Sports sa Kabataan Sports sa Kabataan. It’s admittedly not a great sounding slogan or motto, but as the country goes out to vote for their barangay chairmen, councilors and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials, I can’t help but cite the importance of the relationship between youth development and sports. It’s something that SK candidates always talk about, and they even sound as good as the veteran politicians when they promise to use sports as a tool to develop the youth. But where are all the activities from all these? Where are the sports programs, competitions, training clinics and top young prospects from all this? But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just assume that all our SK representatives just forgot about their promises of the past. More importantly, let’s also assume that they’re honest (not corrupt) and have genuine concern for their constituents. And finally, let’s assume that they listen to unsolicited advice from the all ble...

Bleacher Talk October 21, 2007 Basketball’s Twilight Zone This time of the year in the basketball world is always the “worst” for us. Just as most of the collegiate leagues end, everything suddenly comes to a stop. After going through a high of watching the exciting championship series of the CESAFI, UAAP and NCAA, we’re suddenly left with nothing as big and as exciting. It’s the basketball year’s twilight zone when everything is relatively quiet and the natural transition of basketball action will take us from college ball and on to the commercial or pro leagues. If you take a closer look at it, the transition is very much a mirror of what takes place when the careers of college players come to a close. The most logical next step in their careers is to go one notch higher to try their luck in the commercial leagues. In a sense, this time of the year is spent for anticipating the next steps of both the basketball scene and the careers of our local collegiate stars. For starters, it’s e...

La Salle Cebu Goes Bad! The colors of green and white will be in the spotlight anew as the One La Salle Cebu Alumni Association (OLSCAA) holds the “LA SALLE goes BAD! The 2nd President's Cup Badminton Tournament” Saturday at the Casino Español de Cebu. This was announced by tournament director and OLSCAA sports committee head John Pages as he called on all La Salle alumni to sign up for the event. Players will be divided into two teams (Green and White) in a dual meet format. Players of the same level will clash against each other, and the team with the most number of matches won will be crowned as over-all champions. “The tournament is really more of a fellowship activity for the association. We had this last year and had a lot fun. The impact was awesome. And so we’re going to do it every year.” Pages said Leading their respective sides are team captains Gerry Malixi and Cholo Verches. Among the players expected to lead the charge for their respective teams include OLSCAA Preside...

Bleacher Talk October 14, 2007 USC & UV CESAFI Finals 2007. This is what basketball is all about. And I’m pretty sure Dr. James Naismith will agree with us if he had been part of the ongoing championship series between USC and UV. As I write this column, the opening tip-off of Game 5 is about to take place, so I’m sure you would’ve read somewhere else here who won the championship. And so I ask: Why is the ongoing USC-UV CESAFI Finals the biggest draw of local sports these days? Given the scenario, there doesn’t seem to be a logical reason why one would want to watch the games. There is no air-conditioning. It’s hot, cramped and stuffy. Yet the Cebu Coliseum is packed to the rafters. You won’t see TV cameras, a row full of photographers, a VIP row or a special table for the press. No indicators that it’s a big league thing. And the highlight of all this is that it’s all absolutely commercial-free! No streamers of cell phone companies, no halftime gimmicks care of a sponsor, no TV c...

Bleacher Talk October 7, 2007 Pacman Sunday Today is Pacman Sunday. It’s the most important day of the sports calendar for 2007 as the entire country will literally come to a halt to watch our beloved hero report to work. But unlike his previous fights, a few interesting twists have arisen and the skeptics and pessimists have jumped on the occasion to add their own share of negative forecasts. I just thought it would be nice to bring these up first and see how fans of the Pacman will react. For starters, some have said that Pacquiao is once again besieged with all kinds of distractions: showbiz, his businesses, problems in his LA apartment and even a third party. All these are supposed to bother him so much that he’s going to climb the ring thinking about these and not the fight per se. Then there’s the choice of Cebu as his main base or training camp for today’s big fight. Why Cebu? Somehow, Cebu is now being pictured as the wrong place to train for a world championship fight. Amidst ...

Bleacher Talk September 30, 2007 Sunday Boxing Sunday boxing? Nothing new here, right? We’re all used to watching the big fights from the U.S. on a Sunday morning since these are held on a Saturday night. When Manny Pacquiao fights Marco Antonio Barrera on Saturday night (October 6) in the U.S. the entire country will be glued to their TV’s on Sunday morning (October 7). But wait a minute. We’re not talking about a fight in the U.S. We’re talking about Sunday night boxing here in Cebu! Just when you thought that the ALA Boxing Gym and SGG Promotions didn’t have anything new to spice up local boxing, they spring up yet another surprise. After the “Moment of Truth” in February and a foreign-laced boxing promotion last July, SGG is back, this time with Sunday night boxing. I can’t recall watching a boxing event of this magnitude held on a Sunday night, but then again nothing wrong here. And so the show is on at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel for another night of boxing that promises to be...