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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Pages: 2003
By John Pages
Matcah point
All things come to an end. People die. A Halle Berry body turns Oprah Winfrey if one stops exercising. A fabulous read, like the book I’m currently devouring, “You Cannot Be Serious” by John McEnroe, has a final paragraph.
Our children, in time, will leave us. Our 18th hole tee shot always leaves us.
A Michael Jordan has to tire, retire, un-retire, then, too tired, finally re-retire. Then he’s fired.
And so it is with 2003. A year in sports fraught with ups and downs, knockouts and fall-outs, aces and faults, champions Vietnam and 4th placer Filipinos. A year when the running man gets hit and run. A year when “Pacman”, like the 1980s Atari craze, conquers the world and devours all things in sight.
Read on, for 2003 dashes through but once in history...
MVP. Unanimous decision: Manny Pacquaio, like Onyok Velasco before all the trappings of riches and fame bulged his stomach and head, is the hands-down Sports Story of the Year awardee. But in my book, sorry to all the Pacmen, he’s not the Athlete of the Year.
Like the Christmas gifts you’ll soon be unwrapping – surprise! My vote goes to Christian Jan “CJ” Suarez, who became only the fourth Filipino in history to win the Wimbledon of bowling: the 2003 World Cup.
Suarez, just 24 and the Busan Asian Games silver medalist, bested the tenpin world last October in the Honduras; joining fellow leftie Paeng Nepomuceno (who struck gold in 1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996), Lita dela Rosa (1978), and Bong Coo (1979).
ATO NI BAY. Noel Tuñacao snatched the International Boxing Organization (IBO) strawweight title via knockout over Indonesian Abrinset Matta last March 8. Rodel Mayol (15-0, 12 KO’s) dethroned Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) champ Genki Ohnaka minutes after the first bell.
BOYS TO MEN. Andy Roddick won six titles, Mandy Moore, the No.1 ranking, a hosting job at “Saturday Night Live”, Andre Agassi’s former coach Brad Gilbert, and the US Open. At age 21.
Dubbed “the next Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson combined,” he towers over you at 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, but greets you like “007,” “Hi I’m James, LeBron James.” An NBA “man-child,” he’s graced the covers of Sports Illustrated and Slam and is worth upwards of 100 gazillion dollars before he even set foot on that Cleveland Cavaliers parquet floor. He’s 18.
You’re Freddy Adu. You toy around barefoot with soccer rocks as a toddler in Ghana. You move to the US in 1997. You now play for Major League Soccer’s D.C. United. You’re heralded as soccer’s next Pele. You’re only 14.
NO KIDDING. The Florida Marlins fish and fry the New York Yankees in the World Series.
The US women’s soccer team, defending champs playing on home turf, booted out by eventual winners Germany in the Women’s World Cup.
justine henin-hardenne, a scrawny and fragile-looking inhabitant of only 10 million people (Belgium) – one-eighth our population – rules Tennisdom. Winning the French and US Opens, beating Kim Clijsters, winning the No.1 ranking, beating Serena Williams.
Kobe Bryant accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old worker at a mountain resort last June 30. Time to eat some humble pie, not just Kobe beef. Many will smirk.
Tiger Woods winless in four “major” tournaments. But never mind. Just as quickly, consolation prizes were on hand: Player of the Year honors unwrapped with, inside the box, fiancée Elin Nordegren.
Tennis and golf doing an ocho-ocho. Four majors, four victors. Mike Weir (Masters), Jim Furyk (US), Ben Curtis (British), and Shaun Micheel (PGA); Andre Agassi (Australian), Juan Carlos Ferrero (French), Roger Federer (Wimbledon), Roddick (US).
HIT AND RUN. The RP running chief since 1992, Go Teng Kok was literally hit and run last July 1 inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. Fired at twice from close range and with bullets racing through his cheekbones, the controversial 58-year-old “Man in White” recovered fully then ran his track team to eight golds in the recent SEA Games.
FINALLY. Four postponements, five years, and the P500 million Mindanao Civic and Cultural Sports Center later, Tubod, Lanao del Norte last October finally hosted the Palarong Pambansa.
The end.
(john@playhouse.edu.ph)
(December 16, 2003 issue)
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