February 1 - 15 , 2016
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
WORLDWIDE SPORTS
A19
San Miguel wins
PBA 2015-2016 Cup
No, it’s not a ‘miracle”,
as others put it, that spelled
San Miguel Beer’s historic
conquest of the PBA 20152016 Philippine Cup.
It’s ‘pride’ in the food
and beverage firm’s rich
tradition as one of the pillars
in the growth sports in this
country. A winning tradition
that, for almost a century,
from the time Spanish
businessman,
Senor
Enrique Maria Barreto y
Ycasa, brought it flagship
product to this shore, San
Miguel upheld.
From that time on,
the men and women who
carried
the
company
logo in he field of sports,
have provided the bright
backdrop lof the country’s
competitiveness
global
sports be it in boys football,
golf as many-time main
sponsor of Asia’s oldest
Philippine Open, cycling,
chess, baseball, softball,
every sport under the sun.
Ten Years ago, SMC
president and CEO Ramon
S. Ang shelled out P100
million by way of sponsoring
the training of athletes in
11 sports in the country’s
overall victory of the 2005
Southeast Asian Games.
The amount took care
of his build up of athlete in
archery, athletics, baseball,
boxing,
dragon
boat,
karatedo, lawn bowling,
muay,
petanque
and
wrestling. Those sports
accounted for 56 of the
country’s total 113 goldmedal harvest for a high
49.56 percent.
SMC
was
also
responsible for the country’s
winning its fort gold medal
in the University Games s
few yers back courtesy of
Super Grandmaster Wesley
So.
The
San
Miguel
Beermen’s
recent
triumph rising from a 0-3
grave to rule the local pro
league’s most prestigious
tournament enabled them
to write their names in
the world’s sports history,
joining an elite eight-team
club which accomplished
the feat the past 74 years.
It, too, came as
coach Leo Austria and his
Beermen’s manifestation of
the firm’s strict compliance
to its log tradition of prestige
that dates back from the
late 19th century.
Before fashioning out
the rare feat via a 96-89
thriller of a conquest of
Alaska Milk Wednesday,
only four teams had actually
done the trick. No team
ever, not even in the United
States’ National Basketball
Association succeeded in
attaining the honor on the
hardcourt.
The four previous times
that a team succeeded
erasing
nothing-to-three
deficit to win the crown
happened in the National
Hockey League, Major
League Baseball, Liiga
to a 3-0 lead in he opening
three games of their
2004 American League
championship, showdown
to bring home the bacon.
Completing the cast
that succeeded bouncing
back from the dead were
Hockey League in Finland
and Russia’s Gagarin Cup.
The Toronto Maple
Leafs emerged the first
team to come from the
ashes when it captured the
1942 Stanley Cup diadem,
beating the Detroit Red
Wings, 4-3, in the finals.
It took 62 years later to
again see a team matched
that Maple Leafs’ record
when the Boston Red Sox
advanced into the World
Series by foiling the New
York Yankees, who roared
KalPa of Finland and SKA
St. Petersburg of Russia.
KalPa upended the Blues
in the finals playoff of
the 2012 Finnish Liiga
Hockey League while SKA
Petersburg, likewise, vaulted
back from nowhere to deny
CSDA of Moscow to march
triumphantly in the 2015
Gagarin Cup.
Three more sides had
actually rebounded from
the predicament of losing
the first three games of a
best-of-seven in non-title
on April 9, cold easily restore him to where he belong in the P4P list.
This is because with his
injursy completely healed,
Pacquiao is again epected
to show to all and sundry
tnat he is still the most exciting fighter on the planet,
with blinding handspeed
and footwork as well as
thunderous power, which
were absent in his recordbreaking showdown with
Mayweather.
Athough a year has
been added to his age, thr
Filipino simonpure is still
onsidered as one of boxing’s most dangerous combatants and it takes a fighter of Mayweather’s calibre
to beat him.
Incidentlly, the Filipino
“Fighter of the Decade” of
the Boxing Writer Association of America outranked
Bradley in both the ESPN
and RING ranking. The
Palm Spring, Californiabased
fighter is ranked
fifth by he ESPN and l0th
by boxing’s bible.
Three of the next in
line following Bradley in
the ESPN ranking are all
unbeaten -- Andre Ward,
6th, 28-0; Guillermo Rigondeaux, 8th. 16-0; and Terence Crawford, 27-0, 9th.
Canelo Alvarez, who will be
fighting Briton Amir Khan
next is ranked 7th and
Miguel Cotto, 10th.
The top 3 preceding Pacquiao in the ESPN
ranking -- Gozales, 44-0;
Golovkin, 34-0; and Kovalev, 24-0 -- likewise, own
unblemished win-loss records.
Golovkin and Kovalev
playoffs, all in the National
Hockey League.
These were the New
York Islanders over the
Pittsburgh Penguins in the
quarterfinals of the Stanley
Cup, the Philadelphia Flyers
over the Boston Bruins in the
Eastern Conference semis
and the Los Angeles Kings
at the expense of the San
Jose Sharks in the Western
Conference in the quarters,
both also of Stanley Cup.
Three NBA teams were
able to force a seventh
game in a series after falling
to a 0-3 hole, but lost in the
title run. They were the New
York Knicks in the 1951
finals versus the Rochester
Royals, the Denver Nuggets
against the Utah Jazz in the
1994 Western Conference
semis, and the Portland
Trailblazers in the first round
of the Western Conference
Playoff.
For all winnings in the
past, San Miguel looks it’s
not done breaking records.
Already possessing the
winningest
mark
with
22 PBA championships,
including rare Grandslam,
there are more to conquer.
And having won the firt
tournament of this, the
pro-league’s 41st season,
another three-conference
sweep is in the horizon.•
Pound-for-Pound
Don’t count Filipino
boxing icon Manny Pacquiao out.
Not yet, anyway.
All pound-for-pound
ranking bodies, particularly ESPN and RING
MAGAZINE, in fact, continue to include him in
their recent top 10 best
fighters list with the former placing him fourth
and the latter seventh.
Meaning
those
award-giving entities still
acknowledge the eightdivision champ a force to
reckon with in the prizefighting business until the
time he decides to finally
call it quits.
Prior to his unanimous decision los to the
49-0 holder Mayweather
May, the Sarangani Congressman had been consistently logging the top
5 spots. He was, for many
years, at the top