[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mulAi7cno2Y[/youtube]
Roger in danger…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsO6D1rwrKc[/youtube]
Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold
YouTube: The TV where You choose, You star
One of the smartest inventions on the internet—especially for sports—is YouTube. In search of a 1960s NBA classic? Want to see a replay of the other night’s Boston Red Sox 8-7 win? Manny Pacquiao’s KOs? They’re all there. Plus, YouTube is free, fast, and has nearly 100 million videos stored—tens of thousands of which are related to sports.
Typing “Michael Jordan,” for example, will result to 54,600 videos. There’s the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan McDonald’s commercial, MJ’s final shot in ’98, and a tribute video aptly-titled, “I Believe I Can Fly.”
Greg Slaughter? Cebu’s newest and, literally, biggest star? There are dozens of videos on the UV center, one of which is “Greg Slaughter Dunk UV vs. China” where, true enough, you’ll see the 6-foot-11 giant sprinting down the lane, jumping, catching an inbounds pass on the air and slamming the ball down the ring.
Samprazzzzz? No! Sampras’ book scores an ace
Though I’m not as avid a bookworm as my wife, Jasmin, I love books. (Plus, I strongly believe that today’s children read much, much less while watching more TV and playing more videogames—but that’s another article.)
My favorite books? Without question: Autobiographies. And, at my home’s second floor study area, I have a library of them: Barack Obama’s two bestsellers, John McEnroe’s “You Cannot Be Serious,” Richard Branson’s “Losing My Virginity,” and plenty more by Pele, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch, Bob Cousy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martina Navratilova, Rod Laver…
Last Sunday, I finished one more. Thanks to one of my best friends on the tennis court—Fabby Borromeo, who purchased it in the U.S. and lent it to me last week—I devoured the story of one man who stands as probably the athlete I idolized the most.
“Pete Sampras: A Champion’s Mind / Lessons From A Life In Tennis” is a stupendous book—as you’d come to expect from the greatest player ever to hold a tennis racket. (Roger Federer fans: Your man has not surpassed Pete’s 14 Grand Slam singles titles record yet, so the accolade, for now, though I’m sure it will be broken by RF, stays with PS.)
Yong and Peter
With an eye on Chicago, Dr. Yong Larrazabal runs
Barack Obama of Chicago is running—yes, we know that—but not this Sunday’s marathon at his home city. Two Cebuano doctors, meanwhile, will run 42 kms. at The Windy City: Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III and Peter Mancao.
Chicago will be Yong’s fifth marathon (after NYC, Hong Kong, and the Pasig and Milo marathons in Manila). How many 42Ks does Yong expect to finish? “I plan to complete 33 marathons in my lifetime,” he said. “I pray to God that he gives me good health and that he protects me from injuries for me to attain this.”
Wow… 33 marathons! That’s beyond phenomenal. But if there’s one who can accomplish that feat, it’s Yong. Why? Because he’s ultra-driven; working not only long hours at the Larrazabal Eye center (at the family-owned Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital) but also finding time to train hard.
Dr. Peter Mancao
At the New York City Marathon finish at Central Park: Yong and Donna Larrazabal and Phia and Peter Mancao
Peter Mancao: The Heart Surgeon With A Heart
One act of kindness that I will never forget happened last February 17. Together with 13 others from Cebu, I joined the Hong Kong Marathon. After the starting gun fired at 6:45 in the morning, off we jogged, traversing the asphalted roads, climbing bridges, crawling under the tunnels when, suddenly at Km. 28, both my legs cramped and, worse, I had intolerable pain at the sides of my knees. I winced in distress, walked crippled, felt like my knees had been hammered by a baseball bat.
Dr. Peter Mancao passed-by. While I asked that he proceed, he stopped, asked for liniment, rubbed it on my knees, asked for cold sponges and smothered those on my injured legs. For the next several kilometers—like a good doctor would accompany an ailing patient—Dr. Mancao did the same. And, it wasn’t until the 35th km. while under the Western Harbour Tunnel when I sat tortured by the knee pain, that I forced him to run. Reluctantly, he did.
I didn’t finish the Hong Kong Marathon—but that act of kindness I will forever remember: For here was one of Cebu’s top heart surgeons (and the man who organizes the Run For Your Heart races) who runs with a kind heart.
As Greg slaughters, UV marches to No.8 this ‘08
He is the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper. The Empire State Building. He’s Taipei 101. He’s the Marco Polo Hotel of Cebu basketball who is statuesque and overlooking while the rest of the buildings sit below his monstrous shadow.
Last Thursday night at the Cebu Coliseum and together with 10,000 standing-room-only fans, I watched Game 1 of the UV vs. USJ-R Cesafi finals.
One behemoth dominated. No, sorry, he didn’t dominate—he lorded. On this game where you shoot at the 10-foot-tall ring, his nearly 7-foot-tall frame—plus those outstretched hands that would dwarf Michael Phelps’—he reigned supreme. He lorded tall in the forest like a towering giraffe looking down at the jaguars. And, by jaguars, yes, I mean the USJ-R Jaguars.
Trying to be No.1 at Tri, that’s Noy Jopson
I’ve dribbled a basketball, putted on a golf course, swam 25-meter laps, flicked my wrist in badminton, ran 10-Ks along Osmeña Blvd., swung volleys in tennis and mountain-biked to Tops, but the one sport that I have yet to try is…. Tri.
Yes, tri. As in, three. Triathlon is it’s full name and, if one speaks of one of the most backbreaking of endeavors—think of the Ironman and it’s 3.8-km. swim, 180-K bike, and 42-km. run—then you’ve got to try… Tri.
Here in Cebu, when “triathlon” is muttered, one name above all enters my mind: Noy Jopson.
