Sept. 21, 1994. Exactly 32 years ago today, I was a 22-year-old sports fanatic getting my first newspaper article published in The Freeman. More than a thousand pieces later, my love for sports and writing remains as strong as ever.
Later this year, I’m publishing my first book, “JOHN’s PAGES: 30 Years of Sports Writing (Love 30: 1994–2024).”
Below are excerpts from the Introduction of the book:
A FIRST FOR CEBU TENNIS.
That was the title of my very first column in The Freeman.
I will never forget that moment. Sitting inside Jollibee along Mango Avenue with Nimrod Quiñones, then the sports editor of The Freeman, we listened as Councilor Joy Augustus Young spoke about the Cebu City Olympics.
“Would you like to write a weekly sports column?” Nimrod asked.
The sports fanatic that I was—especially in tennis—who could resist? To be invited to write about the game I loved most was a dream. Thus began my literary journey in sports. I was 22 years old.
JOHN’S PAGES is a collection of those writings, from 1994 to 2024. My first column was called Tennis Shorts. Months later, it became Tennis Is My Game. When I began to write beyond tennis, I renamed it Gut Feel. I loved the phrase. In tennis, “gut” is the string on your racket. To everyone else, “gut feel” is instinct—what you sense deep inside. Later, the column evolved into Match Point.
From one article a week in The Freeman in 1994, I moved to SunStar Cebu in 2003. There, for many years, I wrote three times a week. Over three decades, I estimate I have written more than a thousand pieces.
And though 30 years have passed, my passion for sports and writing remains as strong today as that September day in ’94.
I love sports. I love playing sports. Nothing excites me more than biking across the CCLEX bridge for 90 kilometers—or preparing to run the 42K in the Osaka Marathon. I sweat every day: a one-kilometer swim, an hour-long treadmill run, or a Sunday ride with my JRJR best friends—James, Ron, and Ronnie.
I love watching sports. Reading about LeBron James, Eliud Kipchoge, or Alex Eala. Hearing the crisp pop of a pickleball strike. Witnessing the grandeur of the Olympics, the roar of a Pacquiao fight, or the thrill of a YouTube highlight on Tadej Pogacar.
I love everything that involves games.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to sports. Thanks to my parents, Bunny and Allen, who let my brother Charlie and me run, bike, and play basketball as soon as we could walk in Mountain View Subd. in Bacolod, the habit of play has never left me.
Why “Love-30”? Tennis players know the score. It’s a crucial moment. The match is underway, the midpoint reached, but the finish is still ahead. That’s how I see this journey. Thirty years have passed. Yet I remain as thirsty as ever and hope to write for another thirty—before finally ending with: Game, Set, Match.
