by rick olivares
If Tom Hanks famously claimed that there is no crying in baseball,
there sure is some for other sports.
In an ESPN poll last March 20, it was asked if you ever cried about
anything related to your favorite pro/college team. This was after former
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith surprised seven-year old fan GavinSimone on ABC’s “Good Morning America with a hug and a Baltimore Ravens jersey
bearing his surname in the back.
Simone famously teared up in a video taken by his father after he
found out that the Panthers had ditched Smith.
I checked on “yes”. Truth is, I outdid Evelyn Gardner (the subject
of the ire of Hanks’ character of Jimmy Duggan in the splendid film, A League
of their Own that begat that famous movie quote) in bawling out on more than
one occasion.
During my grade school days, we were playing for a football
championship and I didn’t suit up for the big one. My parents never really
liked me playing sports because I was one of those students who found it hard
to balance it with my studies. One of them usually suffered and more often than
not it was the latter. By the time I got home from late afternoon practice I
was exhausted and after I scrubbed myself clean I jumped into bed and into dreamland.
The following day, I crammed for my long tests or recitation.
Back to that championship game, my uniform was in the laundry. They
didn’t give two jerseys back then. You washed your one set after the game and
wore it for the next one. I told my folks about the title game but they didn’t
tell the house help to wash them.
I found my gear in the same muddy state that I left them when I
dumped them in the backyard sink several days prior. I was devastated and
scared. I remember my folks scolding me that night about prioritizing sports
over my studies and the dread I felt about the morning to come.
Someone else played my slot at fullback and well, we lost that
game. It might be presumptuous to say my absence caused us to lose but it
certainly contributed to it. Furthermore, when a team suffers an agonizing
defeat fingers are pointed in all directions and I had the big bulls eye on my
forehead and back. I could feel the anger burning holes in my back on our way
to the school bus. There were snide remarks from my teacher and my classmates.
It was a painful lesson about commitment, responsibility, and unity. It was a
no-win situation for me.
Once in the solitude of my room, I let my tears loose.
I hardened myself after that and preferred to hide any emotions.
That is until well into my adult life when my emotions got the better of me. So
much for maturity.
In 1989, the Ateneo Blue Eagles’ two-year reign atop the UAAP Men’s
Basketball standings was unexpectedly coming to an end. The team had lost key
players to academics and injury and came into the season a vulnerable squad.
A second round loss to UP put them in a precarious situation where
they had to beat FEU and hope another team would lose. None of it went their
way. Up in the bleachers section of the old Rizal Memorial Coliseum, I watched
as the Eagles caught fire late in the game to rally from a late deficit but
time simply ran out on them. The “dynasty” short-lived. I sat with several
dozen others in the stands stunned. But I shed a tear or two.
There was the 1997 PBA Commissioner’s Cup where the Gordon’s Gin
Boars defeated the Alaska Milkmen 4-2 in the Finals to stop a two-finals losing
streak to the latter that was building its own dynasty. Gary Granada’s song,
“Kapag Natatalo ang Ginebra” was what every Ginebra die-hard felt in his or her
heart. When the Boars finished off Alaska in an unexpected rout in Game Six,
the tears flowed.
There was the 2006 World Series where the New York Yankees lost the
title after the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Luis Gonzalez’ bloop single into the
shallow outfield scored the winning run. The championship series was
overshadowed by the harrowing events of 9/11 as almost every match – especially
those played in New York that had that surreal endings to all of them -- had an
emotional fell to them. The Game 7 loss was the last for my favorite Yankee,
Paul O’Neill who retired after the season (they also lost third baseman Scott
Brosius to retirement) and a few others who were instrumental in New York’s
dynasty.
When Liverpool defeated AC Milan in the 2005 UEFA Champions League
Finals, it was around 6am of May 6th (just past midnight in
Istanbul) on penalties. After Andriy Shevchenko missed a penalty against LFC
keeper Jerzy Dudek to give Liverpool, a 3-2 edge in a penalty shootout, I
couldn’t contain my tears. My favorite football club in the world, one I
followed since I was a kid, had finally won a major trophy after a drought of
15 years (unless you count the FA Cups of 1992 and 2006)! Not since the 1989-90
season when Liverpool midfielder John Barnes scored on a penalty against Queens
Park Rangers on April 28, 1990 that secured their last domestic league title have
I felt that rapture associated with that Merseyside club. In the intervening
years, I had to suck up all the ribbing from friends who rooted for Manchester
United as the Red Devils overhauled their trophy total in the next two decades.
This sure felt good even if only for a while (as MUFC overhauled
LFC’s league trophy total to continue to stick in our faces).
There are others – Ateneo’s 2007 Final Four defeat to La Salle and
Liverpool falling short (four points) to United in the 2009 Premiership race
comes to mind.
One time in August last year, my youngest son asked me why I was so
passionate about sports. I wrapped my Gilas Pilipinas jacket around him and
said, “You watch.”
After Gilas Pilipinas defeated South Korea in the 2013 FIBA Asia
Championships to end years of heartbreak (and to book a ticket to the World
Cup), it was an emotional household that I came home to. The look of happiness
disguised as tears were all I needed to know.
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