LAS VEGAS – The inimitable Recah Trinidad, inarguably the best sportswriter in the Philippines, looked a little blue when I met him yesterday at the Mandalay Bay?s media center.
He said he wasn?t sad. But he looked gloomy, his warm, gentle smile supplanted by a rare look of disappointment.
Eventually, I unearthed the root of his discontent. And I was shocked, almost beyond words.
?They rescinded my credentials for the fight,? he told me in soft, measured tones.
Recah then showed me an email from Magna Media International, the company which issued credentials for the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch.
And there it was indeed a note informing him that he is no longer welcome to attend the fight at least as a credentialed member of the press. There was no specific reason cited, leaving Trinidad to wonder about what he called an ?anomaly.?
So I went to see Andy Olson, who owns Magna Media International. I pried for specifics, the big, elusive why.
Olson said the credentials were rescinded ?for cause? and that ?something happened in yesterday?s press conference.?
The affable Magna Media owner said that a rescinded credential is rare ?but not unprecedented.? And he explained that the rescind order came from Mandalay Bay?s PR Team led by Mr. Scott Ghertner.
I informed Bob Arum about Recah?s plight. He, too, was stunned and he ordered one of his staff to make calls to ?fix? the problem.
Later in the day, I got a voice mail message from Mr. Olson. He informed me that he emailed Recah and invited the bestselling author for a 2:30 p.m. meeting today at the credential office with Mr. Ghertner.
But Recah insisted he won?t come. ?I have nothing to explain. I didn?t do anything wrong,? he told Philboxing.com.
So there you go, the best writer among us here, the one who had logged many hours covering Pacquiao at the Wild Card gym since late September won?t be at ringside to finish his work of art.
Gone are his juicy details of yet another Pacquiao coverage. It?s sad. It?s a travesty.
Recah speculates that he might have lost his credentials due to some articles he wrote about Pacquiao that were what he labeled as ?not positive.?
I hope that?s not the case. Recah owns one of the prettiest prose in all of sportswirting. He should be allowed to write freely, to speak his mind openly.
And we, his fans, should not be robbed of that splendor to inhale the sweetness that bleeds from his mighty ink. ?I have better things to do in Manila,? Recah said in a terse email to Magna Media.
He threatened to pack his bags and go home and frolic with his angelic grandkids, treasures he hadn?t seen since he flew here in the States to cover the World Cup of Boxing last Aug. 11.
I hope Recah changes his mind.
He doesn?t belong on a PAL seat just yet. At least for now.
He only belongs at ringside at the Mandalay Bay. So that he can chronicle the continuing Pacquiao saga like only he can.
On a slow news day, when Pacquiao and Barrera didn?t have a press conference, Recah?s stripped credentials was the biggest story.
And deservedly so. You just can?t bench a star writer without cooking up a storm.
