Sports Eye
Athletes die hard?
By Jesus A. Garcia, Jr.
DOCTORS say athletes die hard because they are very energetic and super active in exercise. I would say “yes” but I would also say “no.” No because there are some athletes whom I knew died young despite being very active in sports. And the latest victim is the former PBA import Bobby Parks. Parks who preferred to stay in the Philippines to take care of his rising son UAAP MVP Bobby Ray Parks passed away last March 30 due to lung cancer. He was 51. Records say the father Parks was the only seven-time winner of the Philippine Basketball Association’s Best Import Award that propelled the now defunct Formula Shell Turbo Chargers to win many championships in 1990’s. Adored by many sports-minded Filipinos (including this writer) due to his lithe shots with snake-like incursion inside the court during his heydays, Parks was the athletics’ director of National University where his son Bobby, Jr. was enrolled.
Another former PBA player Lim Eng Beng is reportedly suffering a liver cancer today. Beng, now 61, who started to play in PBA in 1975 under the banner of Concepcion Industries and ended his pro career as Manila Beer cager in 1986 is now confined at De La Salle Medical Center in Dasmariñas, Cavite and in dire need of financial help. Reports say he needs at least 3M for his liver transplant surgery to make him survive the killer disease. Basketball colleagues and friends from his alma mater De La Salle are trying to raise funds for his operation and hoping for the best. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I want to stay home now and sometimes I already want to die,” said the frustrated Beng, whom I ardently admired as a point and shooting guard of Crispa Redmanizers.
Honestly I was surprised to hear from a Manila radio report about his condition last week because when I personally met this fellow in Guam in 1984 with some of his teammates after their last game against their arch rival Toyota which was called the “Last Hurrah,” he adamantly refused to drink beer with us despite the insistence of his teammates like Tito Varela, Abe King, Atoy Co and the late Jimmy Javier. He told us he doesn’t drink any liquor or wine and was a keen vegetarian. I could be wrong or also maybe right that the Filipino-Chinese cage star already drinks wine or liquor (now) when he officially retired in 2005. I guess that’s where he got now this kind of killer disease. Hopefully I’m wrong.
In cycling, there’s only one former champ in multi-stage bikathon I knew who died him after many months battling lung cancer. Mamerto Eden, Sr. of Mapandan, Pangasinan who won the fabled Tour of Luzon crown in 1958 died in June, 1985 at the age of 62. His son Roger, 42, also died of the same cause. The two worked as painters as their means of livelihood. His family (told this writer) believed that the two deaths were due to their constant exposure to paint.
Yes, there were other former cycling champs and cycling executive that despite their very active lifestyles, they still died young. They were 1961 Tour of Luzon king Jose Moring, Jr. of Cebu who died due to kidney failure; back-to-back (1964-1965) Tour of Luzon titlist Jose Sumalde of Bicol who reportedly succumbed to hepatitis B; 1974 Tour of Luzon-Visayas champ Teodorico Rimarim of Basista, Pangasinan and three-time Tour winner Manuel Reynante of Muntinlupa City both died of heart attack. Bicycle executive mogul Tony Kairuz who organized the 1974-1977 Tour of PICCA also died due to cardiac arrest after playing a basketball scrimmage. There, too, were former cycling champs who died due to road accidents and that is a different story. They were 1981-1982 Marlboro Tour king Jacinto Sicam of San Manuel, Pangasinan; 1990 Marlboro Tour victor Manuel Buenaventura of Metro Manila and 1983 Marlboro Tour conqueror Romeo Bonzo of Sual. First Tour of Luzon (1956) winner Antonio Arzala of Sta. Rosa, Laguna and 1960 Tour of Luzon titleholder Rodrigo Abaquita of Cebu both died due to old age.
Unlike the ancient times where the early inhabitants lived to hundreds of years, not anymore in this golden age time where a lot of incurable diseases had surfaced especially cancer that only the Almighty Lord can heal even at the stage of three or four. Miracles still exist on this planet. Praise the Lord. Amen.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.” JOHN 6: 46-48
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