“Fire Quinito is a very, very impressive Philippine sports blog, and I'm not saying that only because the guy who runs it reads my stuff. The blog's take on Philippine sports is funny and right.”
-- Rafe Bartholomew, author of Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball

“Gutsy.”
-- Tim Cone, Alaska Aces coach

“Irreverent, objective, witty, straight to the point. Just as sports reportage should be. Yes, even when it attacks the 'numerous dick moves' of Chot Reyes.”
-- Chot Reyes, Talk N Text Tropang Texters Coach

“Fire Quinito reminds us that reading about sports should be as fun as watching or playing them.”
-- Howie Severino, GMANews.TV Editor-in-Chief

“In a culture of kiss asses, it seems [Fire Quinito] has been refreshing in the sports community.”
-- Jude Turcuato, longtime play-by-play announcer and former marketing head of Solar Sports

“I must say it is refreshing to see the reporting as blunt and candid as [Fire Quinito] is.”
-- Fred Uytengsu, Alaska Aces team owner and former PBA chairman

“At 1st why Fire Quinito? I find it really weird to get accolades at the expense of a sports institution. And where is the moral value for awarding you a blog award? You are just an ant compared to someone like Quinito who has been around the writing world as early as your diaper days. You are just a small insect and Quinito won't make patol to you ever and never...”
-- Boyet Dones on Twitter

The site will be going through some major revisions over the next couple of hours. Things would be looking funky or out of whack while I'm working on it.

UPDATE: It should be done... but there are usually errors with these things, so drop me a line if you guys find anything amiss. Also, what do you think?

Here’s a basketball-related story from my Christmas Eve. I was watching BTV (natch!) while waiting for noche buena, a special on Alonzo Mourning. I turned to my stepdad, who worked for a while in Miami back in the ‘90s.

Me: “Naabutan mo ba sa Miami si Mourning?”

Dad: “Oo, nung paalis na.”

Me: “Siya yung pinalit kay Glen Rice eh.”

There was a short, pregnant pause.

Dad: “Eh si Glen Rice naman, para ring si Bogs Adornado yan eh. Kung hindi tumitira, wala nang ibang ginagawa.”

Me: “Ganun ba si Adornado?”

Dad: “Oo… Naghihintay lang ng pasa. Kung hindi pinapasahan yan ng mga taga-Crispa, wala nang magagawa. Hindi katulad ni Atoy Co, kangkarot talaga.”

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you and your families had a good one.

Fire Quinito will resume posting in December.

Apart from Fire Quinito, I will be writing for the brand new Man’s Blog for FHM.com.ph. This project has actually been in the works for over a year now, even before I put up this blog. Lots of stuff happened along the way but I’m just glad it’s up and running.

I will be blogging alongside the FHM editor-in-chief Allan Madrilejos and managing editor Allan Hernandez. I’ll be writing about music, movies, books, and other pop culture stuff in the same style that made Fire Quinito a success over the last few months. If you like my stuff here, you might enjoy the stuff there too. For my first post, I listed all the things that I believe in to hopefully give everyone a better idea of what the new blog is about.

(By the way, the picture of me on the site is from over a year ago. It’s still my favorite picture of myself.)

Will this affect Fire Quinito? Hopefully not. I promise to still devote as much time and effort to this blog as I have over the past few months. I watch too much sports and I’m too much of a basketball geek. Quinito’s going to write or say something stupid , or Ryan Gregorio’s going to make a bonehead coaching move, or Manny Pacquiao will do something embarrassing, and I won’t be able to help myself. I also have a 3,000-word rant about why Jerry Codinera should have been able to retire as a member of Purefoods that’s lurking in me.

Lemme know what you guys think. Be nice.