3 loves in sports

SPORTS-WISE, I had three “loves” as a youngster – basketball, soccer and boxing.

The game of basketball was – and still is – my first love.

Then again, I was a bit lean and small to play hoops as a kid.  And so I took in a second sport – soccer (local football).

I played soccer for some time.  I stopped doing so when I reached teen-hood and simply watched games at the old Rizal Memorial Football Stadium such as the Asian Youth competitions where the Philippines offered a stiff challenge to the powerhouses in the Asian region (note:  not the best in the Southeast Asian region where, even that level, our current Azkals booters have a hard time winning over their opponents).

Through the years, my fascination with soccer wavered a bit for I felt the games were not as exciting as watching basketball contests since the match scores often were on the low side and draws of 0-0 were one too many.

Still, for whatever it’s worth, I was smitten by soccer because playing the game taught me how to run fast and develop stamina.

As a teenager, my eldest brother often accompanied me to various basketball games at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and at faraway Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.

The two of us often slipped in and out of the Big Dome for important games like the finals of the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA) competitions and other local and international basketball tournaments.

Ticket prices to those games were prohibitive (scalpers, it seemed, had more tickets in their hands than those manning the ticket booths in the venue) but somehow my brother would find a way to shell out hard-earned bucks for us to be able to witness the games “live.”

Boxing had also come into my life at a tender age because of my family’s closeness to Laura Sarreal, the wife of Filipino boxing great Gabriel (Flash) Elorde. In the 1960s, the Sarreals had lived just across my parents’ apartment in the so-called “tourist belt” along A. Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila.

Laura was close to my mom and she often gave us tickets to Elorde’s fights at the Araneta Coliseum.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was exposed to professional boxing through the magic of television, having witnessed the televised fights of Filipino world champions such as Rene Barrientos, Bernabe Villacampo, Erbito Salavarria and Hawaii-born Ben Villaflor and legendary world heavyweight king Muhammad Ali (the former Cassius Clay) from America.

Until now, my love for boxing has not waned.

And it has something to do with another Filipino world champion, the Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao.

I personally met MP in March 2004 during a magazine interview. At the time, he was preparing for the first of four memorable bouts with Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez.

To say the least, Pacquiao, the tough hombre that he is, was very accommodating and amiable.

For the past decade, I have watched Pacquiao’s international appearances through pay-per-view in the different mall theaters in Metro Manila.

More than a boxer, I think the Pacman would make an excellent professor for “How to Unify a Nation” 101 with him as the prime example.

And if the subject were Religion, Pacquiao, too, could be a wise choice to spread the Word of God with his Bible-reading passion.

Whenever he fights, the entire Filipino nation rallies behind him. He puts Filipinos of different shapes and colors – politicians from opposing sides, government forces and rebels, the rich and the poor, the ordinary and the famous – all in one place and makes traffic everywhere disappear by midday.

Only Pacquiao, who has been moonlighting as a member of the House of Representatives from the province of Sarangani since 2010, has been able to do that.

Pacquiao is more than a jack-of-all-trades. He is our national treasure, a hero who does not run away from any battle.

That’s why Floyd (Pretty Girl) Mayweather knows better than to avoid him in the ring. Only cowards run and hide.