Comparing…

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

SOMETIMES you can’t help but compare important and unforgettable events that happened in your life, especially if you are an athletic person or a die-hard sports fan. You can’t help but compare events many years ago to the latest happenings, like in the NBA, Tour de France, Olympic Games, World Championships, Wimbledon, World Football Cup, Davis Cup, to name a few. In doing so, you appreciate how the sports have evolved since especially in cycling, car racing, shooting, archery and even in basketball competitions.

In cycling and car racing, sophisticated gadgets are now the fashion. I see this big difference from my cycling heydays. The high tech bicycles that they use today are far different from what we were used to in the 60’s and 70’s. We had the steel frames with aluminum devices before and for P700, one could own a complete multiple gear bike. Today, many of our road players use titanium frames with carbon fiber components costing around P375,000 or more.

I can see, too, the difference on how a big event is being organized now, with much fanfare and extra elements, particularly in officiating basketball, billiards volleyball, football, lawn tennis, and badminton, to name some.

Pangasinenses are avid followers of basketball games. That has been proven many times and the latest proof was the 2008 PRISAA Pangasinan-Dagupan Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship that was supported by a throng of spectators from day one to day 45.

Being a basketball lover (my third favorite sport after cycling and boxing), I watched many of the hostilities, especially the semis and the finals where the college boys of Coun. Chito Samson, Jr. of the University of Luzon (UL) escaped two cliffhanger games against the lads of Atty. Gonzalo Duque of the Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU), 85-82 and 66-65.

The UL five, steered by famous bright tactician Renato “Jack” Vidal, not only successfully defended their crown but registered their third title in a row of the annual event.

And four days after winning the crown, they went on a winning spree by dumping the visiting Lyceum of Subic Bay quintet, 109-84, in the elimination match for the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) held at DWD gym. (See related story on this page)

This year’s PRISAA, unlike the previous years, was generally successful despite some off beam yelps by the three arbiters that irked the coaches of both teams. Last year was marked by some violence — a coach punched a referee after the game due to excessive bum calls.

You can’t blame the fuming four mentors of the two teams and the spectators for cussing because the contest was so tight right from the start up to the end. And remember, the skirmish was about neither a championship, not elimination nor a semifinal round.

It could have been an exemplary affair were it not for those last game bloopers inadvertently made by refs Edwin Sandoval, Jun Pontaoe and Raul Bautista.

But that’s water under the bridge. “Nobody is perfect except the man who was crucified” as the saying goes.

Congrats to the people who ran the league, spearheaded by commissioner Angel Gumarang, Seato Gonimil and the people behind them. The affair was the best so far I attended since 1993, the year I came back to observe our sports development in the province.

More power and keep up the good work always. We are always behind you guys, because this is our team.

And to the UL five, I believe you can hurdle the challenging test in Manila.

Good luck and God bless.

(Readers may reach columnist at biking.jess@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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