CHICAGO – I am about to embark on a long journey to Nevada and California, where I will be on assignment covering three of the biggest sports stories of the year. The trip won’t be as much fun without my readers, so I’m taking you for the ride, albeit vicariously, by writing a daily column beginning today.
Seeing this column everyday for the next 12 days, along with the Grapevine and Diary sidebar stories, seems imponderable given the burden of deadline pressures and the quality of work that Sun.Star Cebu readers demand.
But I’m eager to meet the challenge, hopeful that the coming multiple coverages, which I have christened “The Trifecta,” will bring inestimable joy to sports fans who religiously follow this newspaper as well as our Internet edition at sunstar.com.ph.
At 8:36 a.m. this Wednesday (12:36 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 in Cebu), I will arrive in Las Vegas for the Pacquiao-Morales rematch on Jan. 21 at the Thomas and Mack Center. On Jan. 22, I will head to Los Angeles to watch the Lakers host the Raptors at the Staples Center.
As a former Lakers diehard, I find it especially meaningful to visit and meet the new faces that now wear purple-and-gold. As I endeavor to chronicle a slice of Kobe Bryant’s individual brilliance, I can’t wait to see first-hand, Phil Jackson’s continuing search for Zen redemption.
NBA. Again, my deepest gratitude to Ashley Reed of the NBA’s international communications office in New York, for giving me a Lakers game-day pass.
On Jan. 23 I’ll head to West Covina, a quiet and beautiful LA suburb, to do a feature story on Z Gorres and Czar Amonsot, whose dreams of ring greatness have turned up in these United States. Somewhere along the way, I’ll visit Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym.
Michael Koncz, Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista’s US agent, has also taken Gorres and Amonsot under his wings and Koncz told me last night that he has two other Pinoys lined for very important fights in Las Vegas.
Like all of my trips, a lot of money was required to put “The Trifecta” together. And so, with the authority given to me by Sun.Star Cebu, I raised funds through solicitation letters distributed to my sponsors and written on official Sun.Star letterhead.
I emphasize this because a Sun.Star Cebu reporter said that a Cebu City councilor, who moonlights as a basketball coach, once questioned my solicitations, suggesting that I’m making money from my NBA Finals trips. Of course, he is unaware of the fact that my fund-raising is sanctioned by this newspaper.
A fews day after Michel Lhuillier was recently appointed Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman, another Cebu City Government official called and sent me a text message volunteering to facilitate Lhuillier’s possible sponsorship to my Pacquiao fight coverage. No, thanks. I have enough sponsors.
Speaking of sponsors, I’d like to thank the following.
Blue-chip lawyer Adelino Sitoy. Through the University of Cebu College of Law. Sitoy contributed enough money to finance a coup d’etat somewhere in South America. Thanks to the UC College of Law dean, I was able to buy United Airlines tickets way in advance.
Thanks to Park-and-Go Bakeshop and the Rama clan, especially Pare Raul and GingGing, Dr. Gene and Inday, Alice and Jigs Ty, and of course, the family matriarch Manang Mely. The Ramas have sponsored every single one of my sports coverages in the last five years.
Thanks also to Isuzu Cebu in Ayala through Dodong Casta?eres. Isuzu Cebu is a relatively new backer of mine, but since they began helping me last year, their support has been bigger than a D-Max SUV, which Isuzu sells exclusively.
Thanks to Jerry Uy of Cebu Isuzu Parts Supply Inc. and Girlie Garces, San Miguel Corp.’s corporate communications manager for Vis-Min. Although SMC gets swamped with solicitations from all over the place, Girlie always makes sure I get a piece of the pie, not to mention my regular supply of beer.
My thanks also goes to the Dayo brothers in New Jersey, Cerrone and Lence.
Last but not the least, thanks to Osaka Iridology, a company owned by my college classmate Jonathan Guardo, who recently left the CCSC. Osaka has been my supporter since my trip to the 2001 NBA Finals.
On behalf of my readers, thanks again. Without you, this trifecta would only be a dream.
