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.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Reload Prelude

Two minutes and counting. The staff huddles at center court at the Blue Eagle Gym as the players engage in warm-ups. After a few, the team will gather for the national anthem, a short pre-practice huddle where everything that they will do that day will be announced. 
The team and the staff line up before the start of every practice to sing the national anthem. 
Assistant Coach Allan Gregorio watches as Al Ramos and Magi Sison run through their particular set of drills. 
The Gatorade cups are always ready for the players to reach out. How much do they consume? Wait for my next feature on the team that is titled RELOAD.
Trainer Jim Saret has one thing in common with the late New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig. Saret, the former tennis pro now Program Head of the Ateneo Tennis Team pinched hit for the team's former trainer and Rajko Toroman was so impressed he asked him to stay on. Gehrig subbed for Wally Pipp one day at first and he never gave it up until he was hit by illness. Saret designed the team's training system that so impressed coaches and trainers of other teams that they have adopted it to their respective programs. In Jakarta last May 2009, when former team import CJ Giles went down with an injury, trainers and doctors of other teams gathered around Saret as he patched up Giles for one final push that led the team to victory. They were amazed at the quick fix job that was mighty impressive. Saret is a meticulous person who makes sure that the program is designed for optimum efficiency per player.  

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