I started writing about way back, filing stories about the UP Fighting Maroons for an old incarnation of Peyups.com. With the new UAAP season opening this Saturday, I unearthed an old article I wrote in 2003, a running diary of the league's opening.

I'm posting it now for a couple of reasons: it's fun to look at how my writing has changed (or hasn't changed) since eight years go, and it fits in well because Ateneo is hosting this season again.

A few more notes:

- I was totally ripping off Bill Simmons in this diary, something I would freely admit, except no one called me out because he wasn't the sportswriting superstar he is today, and not as many people read him back then.

- A couple of interesting figures turn up in the diary: play-by-play guy Jude Turcuato, who was really the first mainstream media person who gave this blog the time of day, and analyst Ryan "The Genius" Gregorio, who needs no introduction to readers of this website. Funny how these things work out.

- The Karl in the article is the owner of Peyups.com; he's now one-half of the famous wedding photography tandem Mimi and Karl.

- While it's not exactly excellent writing, I still enjoyed my gratuitous potshots at Ateneo.

Oh, sorry, *the* Ateneo.

Enjoy.

Continue reading "A blast from Peyups past: My running diary of the UAAP opening day 2003"

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!"

The last time a team coached by Yeng Guiao played Smart Gilas in a PBA tournament, back in the 2009-2010 Philippine Cup, Air 21 point guard Wynne Arboleda ended up assaulting a Gilas fan at courtside in a very ugly incident in a rough-and-tumble game. So when Guiao’s new team, Rain or Shine, faced off against the Gilas squad last Sunday, many fans were also expecting fireworks.

Continue reading "So what’s a Yeng Guiao game against Smart Gilas without a little controversy?"

For the second straight year, I had the privilege of speaking with the coach of the Philippine Cup champions shortly after winning the title. Over dinner and beer last Tuesday night, Coach Chot Reyes joined me and bloggers from Patay Ang Butiki and From the Stands to shoot the breeze and talk hoops. Because we were all basketball nerds, we ended up talking about everything from the series against San Miguel to his MBA stint to what happened between him and Jun Limpot.

But most of our conversation focused on Talk N Text, Smart Gilas, and the Ateneo Blue Eagles. Here’s the stuff (I think) I can publish:

Continue reading "A dinner with Talk N Text coach Chot Reyes"

PBA owners: Manny Pangilinan (4th from left) and Ramon Ang (5th) sit side by side

Pictures from yesterday’s PBA owners’ meeting showed a curious seating arrangement: Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT and Metro Pacific, and Ramon S. Ang, president of San Miguel Corporation, sat side by side to discuss the league’s problems with the other teams’ top honchos. Tonight, when game 2 of the Philippine Cup finals between San Miguel and Talk N Text tips off, the corporate “frenemies” will be back on opposing sides rooting for their flagship basketball teams, a position they’ve probably grown accustomed to over the past several years.

Continue reading "San Miguel-Talk N Text series the latest saga in Ramon Ang-Manny Pangilinan rivalry"

Forget about the three-feet shirt, this is my new favorite picture from Ateneo’s championship.



Come think of it, the three-feet shirt is a pretty good Eraption!

Win or lose, it’s the school they choose!

[ Photo nicked off GMANews.TV ]

I had been in Chiang Mai, Thailand (home of the 1998 Asian Games, where the Centennial Team won a bronze 1995 SEA Games, where then-Stag stars Marlou Aquino and Bal David led the Philippine team to a gold!) since Tuesday afternoon for the day job. I will be here for the week, which means I’ve missed, among other things Alaska’s 25th anniversary celebration – too bad, because I had been planning to get soused and force Tim Cone to answer whether he’d rather pick Kenneth or Jeffrey if he could have only one guy – and Ateneo’s exciting game 2 win over FEU to win its third straight title.

Continue reading "Travel advisory"

As some of you may have figured out by now, I used to work for a company that is part of GMA Network – actually, its GMA New Media subsidiary. The curious thing about working at GMA, aside from bumping into Kuya Germs at the co-op and sharing an elevator with Annabelle Rama, was that people there took the network competition with rival ABS-CBN very seriously. In fact, I’d argue that it has become part of GMA’s corporate culture.

To fan the flames of competition further, GMA posts the TV ratings from the previous day each morning in the elevator lobby and the cafeteria entrance. That way, employees could check out just how well each of the network’s programs performed head-to-head against their ABS-CBN counterpart. “Ooh, look, Encantadia totally beat the shit out of Kampanerang Kuba last night.”

Continue reading "The UAAP finals on ABS-CBN gets destroyed in the ratings"

A popular chorus among lazy sportswriters is that the PBA is a dying league, a gem that has lost its luster. They rattle off the reasons: the PBA’s gate attendance is on the downturn,¹ the TV ratings are down,² and fan interest is dwindling.³

Continue reading "Is the UAAP a dying league?"

I had wanted to do a mock draft for the PBA rookie draft that’s happening tomorrow, like I did last year, but I didn’t have much time. I had actually been in Davao these past few days for a project for the day job – we were documenting a seminar for human rights workers from the Visayas and Mindanao, people doing the Lord’s work – and it was the farthest thing from having a blog where I write awful things about PBA players.

Continue reading "Quick thoughts on tomorrow’s PBA draft"