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THE Philippine Star carried this on Sunday: “I
remember that game when the mother of Kurt Bachmann was watching,
and she became so angry that she literally went into the court ready
to hit with an umbrella one of the Ateneo players who apparently
elbowed her son. I’m not sure which one of the Ateneo players it
was—either it was Cris Arroyo or the late Ed Ocampo.”
I think if this had happened, I
would have remembered it. What I recall was that Mrs. Bachmann
chased Mapua’s Charlie Badion, also called Bad Boy or Boom-Boom,
because of his reputation. The culprit was in fact Carlos Mandilag.
But, Badion was like Bobby Jaworski, the usual suspect, as Cris was.
No way Ed could have done it. He
was sportsmanship personified. I can entertain though that Cris was
behind the Ninoy Aquino assassination and the abduction of Jonas
Burgos. This assassin once provoked San Beda’s Big Boy Reynoso to
chase him in Araneta which helped lead to the suspension of the
league and the eventual departure of La Salle and Ateneo.
Decades later, Cris, Jojo Binay,
Ed Araullo and I formed the nucleus of a team playing thrice a week
in St. Scho’s gym. We were winning at a 95% clip because of Cris
but, much mellower, he was no longer salvaje but still pillo.
The real rivalry then was between
San Beda and Ateneo. There is a genuine one now between Ateneo and
La Salle and there is enough in it with no need to be inventive
about the past.
On Wednesday, I stopped by
Mendiola briefly, towards midnight, and saw the street roped off.
The party animals were still coming. It was again Christmas and
Mardi Gras for the bonding Bedans. Pure fun. Best was nothing
untoward hap-pened in the playoffs. In 1950, a gun fired in the
Letran stands.
A surprise for me was the
presence in Araneta of Ed Ruiz, my AB classmate, who I might not
have met since our graduation. He had come all the way from
Connecticut, on vacation.
I was sorry to hear from Nonong
Contreras that elder brother Raul is again in a bad way. The title
of this column, Sideline Slants, I stole from Raul in the Bedan, our
school paper. He is a wordsmith who can turn a phrase as well as
anyone.
Sonia Roco was there. Again
memories cascaded. Raul and I were more than brothers in college.
The Bedans sang the college song with fervor and Araneta fairly
shook and just about exploded with the last phrase. The lyrics Raul
put together, teaming up later with Fr. Benildus Maramba. Raul
composed it while honey-mooning, and spoke of herald the Bedans
coming.
Hmmm.
How hard was it to get tickets?
Tough, man. I knew it when Freddie Villamor called to ask for help.
I could not help this time, unlike last year. In the end, he got
ducats from another source; here was a guy who can buy the Coliseum.
It was SRO. I could not get tickets for love, but for money, the
scalpers had a good day. Are some ducats courtesy of Recto and Cubao?
Hmmm.
One area we can improve is in
courtesy. I am upset every time our side would taunt the Letranites
as “squatters!” We should not have to be so haughty. We have a
good number of them where we live. I have helped those so described
all my life. I know first hand that they laugh, they cry, they
dream, they fear, like you and I. The most important lesson in life
is to be kind. I trust the last season is the last we heard this
unchristian taunt.
Too bad the NCAA did not allow
our famous Indian Yell at halftime, which in itself was worth the
price of admission. It took long previously? But, the NCAA is still
about entertainment, not punish-ment. Well, another title is the
best revenge.
Not all dynasties are necessarily
bad.
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