If you wanted to listen to the discussion in the premiere of the Patay Ang Butiki web show, but weren’t too thrilled about watching our mugs on video, then you’re in luck! The show will also be available as an audio-only podcast. Listen in as Niko and Mikkel Bolante of Patay Ang Butiki discuss the past, present, and future of the San Miguel franchise along with me and Toff Rada.



Click on the player to listen, or download the file, or subscribe to it on iTunes or on RSS.

This is the premiere episode of Patay Ang Butiki, a new web show that will be appearing regularly on Fire Quinito. The show is produced by brothers Niko and Mikkel Bolante of Patay Ang Butiki.

In episode one, Niko and Mikkel are joined by ABS-CBN sportscaster Toff Rada and me to look deep into the woes of the San Miguel franchise.

Continue reading "Presenting the Patay Ang Butiki web show"

This blog turns two years old today, so let me take this opportunity to celebrate this blog’s modest achievements.

Over the past couple of years, the level of discourse about sports in this country has deepened and broadened, and I’m proud to say that Fire Quinito has had a little to do with that, even though the posts here aren’t always polite or in good taste.

Continue reading "FQ turns two"

Presented without comment:

GMA News Online: “Famed writer Krip Yuson apologizes for plagiarism”

stuart santiago: “plagiarism and, uh, krip yuson? is that you?”

RadikalChick: “plagiarism apology as can of worms”

Interlineal: “Ruins and monuments: A collective statement on the plagiarism of Krip Yuson”

Ok, crowning him king may just be a tad bit premature – after all, it was only one preseason game – but we haven’t seen a legit college freshman this exciting since… LA Tenorio? James Yap? And those guys are two of the best, if not the two best, homegrown players in the PBA right now.

Continue reading "All hail King Kiefer!"

Ikinararangal naming mapabilang sa hanay ng mga Tunay na Lalake, kasama ang iba pang TNL tulad nina Marlene Aguilar at Kim Chiu.

My buddy Gary Mercado of Basketball Exchange (or BallEx, as the kids say these days) is putting together a basketball league in the southern part of Metro Manila. The league will have refs, stats, and all those bells and whistles. Right now, he’s looking to get 8 teams to join the league.

Specifics, from his blog:

Continue reading "Summer basketball, anyone?"

The usual suspects Polo Bustamante, and Carlo Pamintuan were unavailable last night, so I stepped in for a one-on-one podcast with Chuck Araneta in the latest episode of the From the Stands podcast. After briefly eulogizing the B-MEG Derby Ace campaign in the Commissioner's Cup and talking about the controversial Alaska-Air 21 match-up, we broke down the quarterfinals matchups: Air 21 vs Alaska and Ginebra vs Rain or Shine, and how the teams stack up against top seeds Talk N Text and Smart Gilas.

For this week's Old School vs New School, we compare two of the PBA's greatest shooting guards: Jojo Lastimosa and Mark Caguioa, whose fans argue that each guy is the greatest player never to win the MVP award.

Continue reading "From the Stands: Handicapping the PBA quarters, Jojo Lastimosa vs Mark Caguioa"

Krip Yuson sent an email regarding my earlier blog entry about his Rogue Magazine piece on former PBA commissioner Rudy Salud, which contained several paragraphs from an article written by Rey Joble for GMA News Online. His letter follows in full.

Continue reading "Krip Yuson replies"

So I settle down and read the rest of Rogue Magazine’s sports issue, and something struck me as weird about Alfred ‘Krip’ Yuson’s piece on the Philippine Basketball Association and the legacy of former commissioner Rudy Salud. The words on the page midway through the article sounded familiar; my sensors went on red alert when Yuson started quoting MYPBA forum denizens Jay P. Mercado and Percival Flores. I knew I’d read this article before.

If you follow the PBA closely, you’d know that only one mainstream sportswriter regularly cites the pro league’s amateur historians mentioned above: Rey Joble of GMA New Online. I searched for Joble’s article about the passing of the former commissioner, and true enough, almost the whole middle section of Yuson’s article was lifted directly from it. Whole paragraphs were copied, with very minor changes made.

Continue reading "Hall of Fame writer Krip Yuson plagiarizes for Rogue Magazine PBA article"