BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The problem with NSAs

Our billiards players are asking for a review of the local NSA for irregularities. Actually, it should be every one of the NSA's. I'm surprised what not one billiards player has mentioned how they pay NSA officials a percentage of their winnings to compete in tournaments. In every competition, they appropriate a small percentage but when you add up everything since there are lots of cue artists then that's a lot.

Look at football and tennis. They continue to rely on Fil-foreigners to lead us, but that kills the grassroots program. A veteran on the Azkals (after the failed Iloilo campaign) who refused to be named said that as good as the Fil-foreigners are, it's tough on the locals because they train hard and spend a lot of time on the national team but are cut within days of the foreigners arrival. In the 2006 Qualifiers in Panaad, quite a few pointed out the boorish behavior by Matthew Hartmann and one of the Younghusband brothers by putting down the country and talking down to the homegrowns. Officials are aware of this but do nothing.

How about volleyball. Every wonder why we never had a national side in the last SEA Games? According to some long-time volleyball coaches, we're close to getting suspended by the international body for irregularities. With the PAVA at odds with many of the various leagues, schools, and people (the V-League is not sanctioned yet some of the people in PAVA coach or even let their teams play), are you surprised that our national team players mostly come from one school?


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