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.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Chinese Taipei downplays Saturday Showdown with Philippines in FIBA Asia


This appears on philstar.com


Chinese Taipei downplays match with Philippines
by rick olivares

Chinese Taipei zoomed to the top of Group A of the FIBA Asia Championships following a 90-67 demolition of Saudi Arabia. With the Philippines as of press time last night playing Jordan, head coach Hsu Chin Che downplayed the Saturday match up with the home team.

Hsu dodged questions about the Philippines not being invited to defend its William Jones Cup crown as well as any implications over the game due to the still unresolved shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman at that the hands of the Philippine Navy last May.  “Sports is sports,” pronounced Hsu outside his team dugout at the Mall of Asia Arena. “We didn’t come to discuss politics but to play basketball.”

American-Taiwanese forward Douglas Creighton likewise mimicked his coach’s thoughts. “I’m sure it’s in the thoughts of some people but not for maybe and maybe some of my teammates. You have to focus on the game and nothing else.”

“We want to make the final four,” added Hsu. “We want to win every game. Not only the Philippines.”

Despite tensions between the two countries, Chinese Taipei journalists covering the biennial basketball tournament say that the island nation badly wants to win the match up. “It will mean a lot to us,” divulged the female reporter who asked to remain anonymous.

The last two times these countries met, in the 2011 FIBA Asia and the 2012 Jones Cup, the Philippines came away winners.

“This will be a very good match up,” said Philippines assistant coach Josh Reyes. “In our last game (during the 2012 Jones Cup), they were leading almost the whole way until we caught up. They had the advantage of playing at home. Now we are on Philippine soil.”

Hsu, however, had good words for the local fans. “The Filipino fans are nice. No problems at all. Maybe when we play it will be different.” 

With American-Taiwanese Douglas Creighton outside the media centre.


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Additional reading My thoughts on the Philippines game vs Saudi Arabia

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