Here’s the “Hitler as a La Salle fan reacting to the Archers missing the Final Four” clip that’s been going around.



It’s alright, but I’m posting just so I could link to the vastly superior “Hitler reacts to JRU’s loss to San Beda” last year. Now that was hilarious.

It’s finally happened: De La Salle University is out of the UAAP final four for the first time since the format was instituted in 1994. Tony Atayde already filed a post-mortem and I’m assuming he’s crying green tears, while TJ Manotoc is already deep into the rumor mills. Are the rumors libelous? Wait, that’s a totally different issue.

(UPDATE: TJ wrote a post on his blog detailing the Franz rumors, as well as some coulda-woulda-shoulda's about DLSU's season, and hope for the future.)

Anyway, reader Justin Janolo, a La Salle fan, emailed a suggestion borne out of concern for La Salle coach Franz Pumaren. Since La Salle has never been out of the final four since he took over, that means Franz has never had a free September, said Justin. That means that Franz has no idea what to do for the rest of the month.

Start a sports blog. Hey, everyone’s doing it already. He can blog about the upcoming Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight, post links to a live stream of UFC 103, give his two cents about the Japeth Aguilar controversy, and post funny pictures of Joshua Webb looking like he’s about to cry. He can even do it anonymously so he can talk shit about Bader Malabes without Bader knowing.

Get into running. As everyone knows, running is the new in thing right now. Even presidential candidates are doing it! Franz can go visit The Bull Runner for the list of races he could join this September. It’s really much, much better than basketball… where else can you have athletes competing while listening to Taylor Swift’s “White Horse” on their iPods?

Guest star on ‘May Bukas Pa’. With that well-maintained mustache of his, Franz Pumaren could certainly score a villain role on the hit ABS-CBN show. He can play the evil politician from the other town whose life changes when he meets Santino and his “bro.”

Do an ‘Office’ marathon. Given how busy he has been the past few years on his coaching job, it’s doubtful whether Franz Pumaren is updated with the lives of Pam, Jim, Michael, Dwight, and the rest of Dunder-Mifflin. Franz can stop being out of the loop when the new season premieres on September 17 by doing a marathon of America’s favorite workplace comedy. I could just imagine Franz going ahead and putting Tonichi Yturri’s whiteboard eraser in Jello.

I’m sure everyone has their ideas. Post away on this thread.

Last week’s lookalike poll, meanwhile, turned out to be a runaway for the Junthy Valenzuela-Diego tandem, despite stiff opposition (heh) in the early days from Pido Jarencio and Allan K.

The economic downturn is affecting everyone, and it has hit local amateur commercial basketball particularly hard. The Philippine Basketball League, the traditional breeding ground for Philippine basketball's rising stars, beginning their new tournament while reeling from the departure of two members (Burger King and Toyota Otis), are down to five teams.

It makes sense. Unlike the PBA, the PBL is truly borne out of love: companies pay teams to play in near-empty arenas and there is next to no one watching on television.

This is Fire Quinito's primer for each team, with a different twist: a profile of each team owner. Who are they, and what do they do? And why the hell are they still in the PBL?

Danding Cojuangco and his Magnolia Purewater Wizards is next.



Danding Cojuangco was the man originally nicknamed "Pacman", not for his sporting exploits, but because of his penchant for gobbling up companies. Ina Stewart-Santiago, writing about Ninoy Aquino's assassination and Cojuangco's influence during Martial Law, cited a 1991 Wall Street journal report on the man:

At the height of cronyism in the Philippines, Cojuangco controlled $1.5 billion in corporate assets, an amount estimated to equal 25% of the country’s GNP. He headed an agricultural and industrial conglomerate with interests in diverse areas as coconut, sugar, agri-business, banking, and a host of others. The *Wall Street Journal* observed that Cojuangco attempted to create “cartels in rice, sugar, flour, groceries, and soft drinks but ran out of time.” Referring to Cojuangco’s tendency to create monopolies in the industries where he had investments, a journalist gave him the nickname Pacman, a reference to the computer game where the object is to eat up as much as you can. Cojuangco’s personal net worth was estimated at $500 million, making him among the country’s richest men.

So this dossier would only included sports-related matters, because writing about everything evil Cojuangco ever did would need a blog unto its own.