First time

By Al S. Mendoza

THERE’S ALWAYS the first time.

It has been my dream to make a perfect attendance here.  Sadly, the streak ended last week, when my column for the April 9 issue failed to appear.

It marked the first time that I was absent since I began writing here in February 2005.

It happened at a most unfortunate time, and at a very unlikely place.

My fault, my mistake, and for which I apologize sincerely.

It was unfortunate because my topic for the April 9 piece was, among others, about the Korean kimchi, which has become a favorite side dish of mine since I covered the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, in 2002.

The dateline of the column was a very unlikely place: Seoul, South Korea.  It would have been my first column done overseas.  Bragging rights, sana.

 OK, here are some more facts about the column that never was.

  I filed my column in Seoul on April 4 at the Press Center of the Sports Accord Summit, which was being held then at the Seoul Intercontinental Hotel. Some 203 presidents of Olympic associations from 203 countries had been assembled there to discuss, among other things, ways to improve sports worldwide and the modern thrusts to make sports a commercially viable tool for national progress and enliven a nation’s economy.

The Sports Accord Summit was just a bonus to my trip as I had seen first hand how the First World Countries had recorded gigantic strides on areas of Olympic involvement and marketability of elite sports.

But I was in Korea primarily to cover the historic meeting between two Philippine basketball delegations with Patrick Baumann, the powerful secretary general of the World Basketball Federation (Fiba).  The delegations were that of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), and of Eala &Company.

Eala & Co. included basketball stakeholders PBA Commissioner Noli Eala, PBL Commissioner Chino Trinidad, the UAAP’s Jun Jun Capistrano and the NCAA Paul Supan.

Both delegations gave Baumann the real lowdown on Philippine basketball – that is, that Philippine basketball today is comprised mainly of the PBA, PBL, UAAP and NCAA.  Of course, the other basketball leagues will soon be embraced by the four major basketball bodies.  Baumann was also informed that the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) has lost its moral obligation to lead Philippine basketball because it had been expelled unanimously by the POC General Assembly last year.

Believe you me, everything that was told Baumann, the Fiba secretary general digested it with gusto.  Essentially, Baumann said he was happy that he finally heard the side of the four major stakeholders.  He advised them to “stay the course in your bid to regain the status of Philippine basketball on the world stage.”

All of that – plus the magical thing about the delicious kimchi – appeared in my missing column that I e-mailed to Sunday Punch on April 4 through jocelyndc2005@yahoo.com.

Either it got lost and landed somewhere in Mt. Timbuktu, or the BAP’s tentacles in Dagupan must have intercepted it.

I wish I could still reconstruct it.  That also be would have been a first if I did.

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