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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Sayson: Sitting on Boom-Boom story
By Homer Sayson
Second Overtime
CHICAGO — The Freeman sports editor Manny Villaruel was surfing the PacMan website in the Internet last Saturday when he intercepted a tale about Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista allegedly seen at a doctor’s office in Los Angeles.
Nosy as an NBI informant, Villaruel’s curiosity was aroused. He wondered why BoomBoom, a robust 21-year old kid, scheduled to fight in a glamorous card next month in Las Vegas, would suddenly see a doctor virtually under the radar.
Sensing that he was now trailing the scent of an enormous developing story, Manny, a sportswriter since 1995, made several phone calls to his network of contacts in the fight game. On a slow, quiet weekend, it was an arduous task. But Manny was determined to chase the story.
Later that day, when he finally closed his newspaper’s sports pages, Manny had uncovered that BoomBoom’s mysterious doctor’s appointment had something to do with an injury. Through diligent news gathering, Manny watched a harmless Internet chatter blossom into a screaming headline, a giant scoop for The Freeman, and perhaps, Villaruel’s finest moment.
But Manny’s treasure of a scoop turned out to be my misfortune.
I’ve been in constant touch with BoomBoom and his trainer Edito “Ala” Villamor on the phone lately. In fact I just wrote two columns about Bautista’s training regimen in LA and at the Wild Card gym.
Honestly, I feel silly, if not sick, being left out of such a humongous turn of events.
But I harbor no hard feelings. Team Bautista has no obligation to confide to the media certain things that they want to keep under wraps. I just think of this episode as Villaruel being at the right cyberspace spot at the right time.
Still I’d like to inform Bautista’s camp that I, too, can keep a secret and that I’m more than willing to sit on a story until it’s printing is convenient to everybody involved.
Upon introspection, I now realize why BoomBoom or Villamor didn’t tell me about the injured body part — I didn’t ask. How stupid of me. But how was I suppose to know that Bautista was hurt? When we last spoke, he was laughing freely, giving no hint whatsoever that his shoulder was bothering him before he even arrived in LA.
I did try calling BoomBoom and Edito in LA last night, but only an answering machine was willing to talk to me. I also phoned Cebu, but Antonio L. Aldeguer was in a meeting and couldn’t take my call.
Aldeguer did e-mail me later saying: “BoomBoom is out of the Sept. 16 card at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. He incurred a complete fracture on his right clavicle and will require medical treatment which will take four to six weeks of rest and recuperation. He will be home for treatment anytime this week.”
Super promoter Sammy Gello-ani also e-mailed me three photos. The images showed a forlorn-looking Bautista posing somewhat reluctantly before the camera. At the base of his neck, right where the collarbone sits, lies a lump the size of a pale-red strawberry.
No word yet on when BoomBoom will resume training, and hopefully, fighting. But Salven Lagumbay of CDN, Philboxing.com and the Inquirer, told me on the phone yesterday that ALA ward Z Gorres is poised for a big fight in place of BoomBoom.
Salven, easily the most well-connected boxing writer in our neck of the woods, asked me not to print Z’s fight date until further confirmation.
“It’s good to be first, but it’s better to be right,” so says an old journalism adage. Manny Villaruel, The Freeman’s 26-year old sports editor, got it first first and got it right.
I asked my column’s photo today to be shaded darker, so that you can’t see the black and blue marks caused by the blows of Manny’s big Bautista scoop. But like boxing, this is the nature of our business. Some days you get the prime stories, some days you get the spoils.
(homsay@hotmail.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 23, 2006 issue)
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