The Philippines' No.1 Female Sport?????

What is the No.1 sport for females in the Philippines?  For males, it is too obvious.  Basketball has been the No.1 sport for the Filipino males.  Let's say you have a sister or daughter who is around 5'9" and has an athletic figure, what sport should she get into to become rich and famous? 

Volleyball? No.  Volleyball could get you a college scholarship but it will not bring in so much money.

Basketball? No way.  There is no money in Women's basketball in the country.

Tennis? It has been a while since we had a Filipina ranked in the WTA tour.

The answer is ..... Beauty Pageants. 

Here are 3 reasons that it is the no.1 sport for females in the country:

1. Fans - The fans of beauty queens are as rabid as the most loyal Barangay Ginebra fans.  These loyal fans will bring placards in competitions. They will defend their queen in twitter and Facebook. Virtually the whole Philippines will root for its Ms. Universe candidate.  

2. Prize - The prize in some pageants could reach millions and opportunities to represent the country in an international pageant.  Winning a title opens doors to TV opportunities as well as rich suitors.  There is no sport for females that can match the prize money for winners.  Many beauty queens became celebrities after winning or joining pageant like Miriam Quiambao, Melanie Marquez, Alice Dixon, and host of other winners. 

3. Training and Competition - Some people think that this is just about being pretty. There are many companies making money training these ladies. The candidates are thought how to walk properly and to answer the dreaded pageant questions.  The small competitions are a big hit in the towns or cities.  It has local media coverage and the competition is very fierce in the lower levels.  The national competitions has a good TV and newspaper coverage. A lot of people spend money just to vote for their candidate. 

Not everyone is meant to be a beauty queen.  To become one, one must possess the looks, the height, the intelligence, and the attitude to endure a grueling pageant. There will be rivalries.  There will be haters.  The Miss Universe pageant is the counterpart for women to a Manny Pacquiao match.  While pageants are technically not a sport, in the Philippines, it is one. ;)

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Rejoice! Pacquiao has finally scored a point in the PBA!!!

A few months back, I was wondering how much points will Pacquiao will score this season.  Well, the answer was 0 for the whole first conference and it was bound to be zero for a while until last night when some sort of miracle happened.  Against Purefoods, Congressman Manny Pacquiao got fouled and he went to the line for 2 free throws. He made 1 and I guess he can finally say that he is a professional basketball player. Basketball player and coach/Boxing World Champion/ Actor/ Congressman / Preacher...  I would say that I would pay good money to see and listen to him as a motivational speaker and the topic: "Everything is Possible!"

NBA playoffs were amazing happens! PBA is where the real amazing happens. Where can you see a professional boxer score a point and then coach his team to a victory over the defending champions.  It was so amazing that Purefoods import and NBA Veteran Daniel Orton became so mad that he remarked that the game was a joke. Orton thought he was like playing against Harlem Globetrotters and got played. Joke or not, Purefood's loss was not a joking matter to the fans and the team management.  Kia now has 2 victories this conference.  They 2 victories more than the suddenly woeful San Miguel Beermen.  Daniel Orton, by the way,  got sacked by the Purefoods Hotshots after his lone PBA game.  He was also fined 250,000 pesos for his post game remarks.  Hopefully, Manny Pacquiao will given a shot next season as KIA's import as a peace offering. 

I would like to congratulate the first pick of the second round of the 2014 PBA Draft for defying my expectations for him and his team. I am quite glad that KIA change their nickname to the one I suggested in my earlier post.  Carnival is so fitting then because their team was like a Karnabal. A few months later, they are not the joke that I thought they would be. I am really happy for them but I want Pacquiao to start the Chinese New Year right.  I want him to announce that bout against Floyd Mayweather or if it will not push through I will ask Pacquiao to make Floyd to be KIA's import next conference. ;) By the way, Pacquiao-Mayweather I will be on May 2. Yipee!!! Finally, I got to see him as a boxer again rather than endure his 6 minutes a night playing time in the PBA.

Here is an update about my questions about KIA at the start of the season:

1. Who will have the ignominy of being the first ever team beaten by KIA?   BLACKWATER!
2. How many seasons will pass before KIA ever beat San Mig Coffee?  Just a conference... They beat them last night!
3. How many points will Pacquaio make this season? 1 so far 
4. Who will be guarding Manny Pacquiao when he scores his first career point in the PBA? It was a free throw
5. Who will have the guts to be the first to foul, block, and steal the Pacman? 
6. How much Pacquiao's insurance against injury?
7. How many wins will Pacquiao have as a coach? His team has 3 wins I don't  know how many is for him but at least he has 1 win
8. How many years will it take before Pacquiao gets fired or retires from either coaching or playing?

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San Miguel's 6th Man!

San Miguel Beer has taken a 3-2 lead over the Alaska Aces in the 2015 Philippine Cup Finals. The Beermen won the last 2 games of the series thanks to a the big contribution of the 6th Man.  the San Miguel momentum changing 6th Man is none other than .... JVee Casio!!!

JVee Casio's performance has made it easier for San Miguel to handle the pesky Alaska team. The former DLSU PG has missed not made a single point in the last 2 games all SMB victories. What is happening to JVee.

 In the first 3 games, he was averaging 12.7 points a game. He even made 7 three points shots in 17 attempt.   He was shooting .412 from long range which was even better than his .375 2-point FG shooting. Casio also made all his 5 Free throw attempts.  All of this has gone caput in the last two games. Casio was silent.  In Game 4, he was a non-factor.  In Game 5, his shooting skills left him and he just could not make a shot.

If San Miguel goes on to win this series, Coach Leo Austria's boys should give Jvee Casio a "balato" from their fat championship bonuses. With Casio's abnormally atrocious shooting it was like there were 6 Beermen playing against 4 feisty Aces.

Let's see if SMB still has a 6th Man in Game 6 !!!!

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Will Junemar Fajardo become PBA's Patrick Ewing?

Junemar Fajardo is blessed with height, heft, and skills to become one of the best Filipino basketball players of all time. He won an MVP title in his second year and he continues to dominate the league. He is probably on his way to another MVP this year and he is expected to win more. The only thing that is lacking for him now is a PBA title.  

Ever since he took the league by storm two years ago, his team never won a title.  They have been in the finals and they lost. The San Miguel Beermen is now trailing the Alaska Aces 1-2 in their best of seven PBA Philippine Cup Finals. Based on the way they are playing, the Beermen is being out hustled by the Aces who seem to want the title more.  Will "The Kraken" and the Beermen lose again?

If Junemar Fajardo loses then he slowly becoming a Philippine version of Patrick Ewing or Karl Malone. It is hard to imagine because a team have 3 chances every year to win a title in the PBA unlike the NBA which can crown 1 team only every year.  In his 6 conferences so far, Fajardo dominated stats but he never won a championship. Last year, it was the year of Tim Cone and the San Mig Coffee who had grand slam. Alex Mallari has now 4 titles while Junemar has none. They were both drafted by Petron 2 years ago. 

San Miguel Beer is like the LA Lakers or New York Knicks  of the PBA.  The expectations are always high.  It is a big pressure for any coach or player to don the San Miguel jersey. The win-now attitude partnered with disappointing endings have cost jobs of many good coaches and players.  The losing spell for San Miguel even cost them their Petron Blaze name. 

Can Junemar survive such environment? When do you think will he win his first PBA title? Will he wait as long as Jun Limpot? There is a big possibility that the wait will be long as long as San Miguel keep on tinkering its line up and coaching after bad conference.  Their method of trying to dominate the PBA by getting all the All-Star caliber players even if the PBA has "salary cap" has somewhat backfired because the team never developed the chemistry that teams like Alaska Aces and Rain or Shine Elasto Painters have. Those 2 teams have won more with less. Hopefully, San Miguel develop some sort of championship identity and shed the "larong mayaman" image. If not then someone will retire with 5 MVPs and ZERO titles. :)

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