This appears in the Monday, December 29, 2014 edition of the Business Mirror.
The 2014 Brewskies
by rick olivares
Last year we skipped the annual Brewskies Awards
where we had out awards to the year’s dubious achievements in sports. But like
Arnold Schwarzenegger who is once more reprising his role in The Terminator,
“We’re back!!!”
And we’re off….
Don’t cry
for me Award
Goes not to Argentina but to Brazil. Expected to end
their drought of World Cup trophies with football’s premier event being help on
their doorsteps, Brazil raced through the tournament although not with out
controversy. Once in the semifinals, eventual champions Germany in most
embarrassing fashion booted them out, 7-1. Looking to salvage a measure of
pride by coping the third place match, they were instead blanked by the
Netherlands, 3-nil.
The I-Am-Always-Hungry-Because-I-Am-Growing-Boy
Award
Goes to Luis Suarez. Remember that old burger joint
The Bite Club? They were the first local designer burger restaurant whose
slogan was, “We Fight Hunger.” Apparently, if they are still around, they might
want to consider getting Luis Suarez as an endorser.
Suarez has an insatiable appetite that not even a
championship with Ajax Amsterdam and one trophy with Liverpool can satiate. While
at the famous Dutch club, he already showed his hunger for more by biting PSV
Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal. When he moved to England to play for Liverpool where
he promptly bit Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. On football’s biggest stage, the
World Cup, he sank his front teeth into Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini. Instead of
raves for his culinary taste, the Uruguayan received a lengthy ban from FIFA
and a one-way ticket out of Anfield. Now he’s in Spain playing for Barcelona
where many wonders how he will take to Iberian Peninsula cuisine.
The Wow
Mali Award
Goes to former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald
Sterling for his racist remarks to his girlfriend. Somehow his remarks were
taped and released by the rag show TMZ. The NBA pushed Sterling out of the door
and sent a message to all its owners that they have to toe the line in this
politically correct world.
The
Ah-What-the-Hell-Moment Award
Goes to Uruguay’s president José Mujica.
Following FIFA’s nine-month suspension of Luis Suarez, Mujica remarked, “FIFA
are a bunch of old sons of bitches.”
Mujica recoiled apparently that he said
something “un-presidential.”
After journalists present asked him if
he wanted to reconsider his words, the former leftist guerilla thought for a
moment then said, “Publish it.” And he added a few more choices words: “They
could have punished him, but not given him this fascist ban.”
Practice
Pays Award
Goes to the organizers of The Lost,
este, Last Homestand.
I know that it pays to practice. And I certainly
remember American coach Larry Brown saying he would pay money to watch Michael
Jordan practice. At least you know it was a practice unlike the farce that was
The Last Homestand where organizers fed the public about a game pitting Gilas
Pilipinas and a selection of NBA players. Only the organizers never got the
approval of the NBA for such an event. The event proceeded and thousands of
paying patrons arrived to see a glorified lay-up line.
In the post-debacle, imagine the boss
himself, Manuel V. Pangilinan falling on the sword for his soldiers who never
admitted to their folly.
The
Fall Award
Goes to Gilas Pilipinas. After an
successful 2013 FIBA Asia Championships where Gilas Pilipinas finished second
to Iran, there were expectations – albeit a little unrealistic -- heading into
the World Cup in Spain. The team came close to upsetting several ballyhooed
teams in the tournament but did manage a win against Senegal to close out its
return to world basketball’s top event.
They had a chance to salvage the year
with a run to the Asian Games gold medal. Instead the team crashed and burned
rather badly following the benching of naturalized player Marcus Douthit and
shooting at Kazakhstan’s basket in an attempt to send the game into overtime where
they could try to gain entry to the semifinals by winning by the prescribed 11-point
margin. The shot was nullified, Gilas’ coach was vilified, and now the team is
starting over again.
The
So Much for a Bunch of Titles Award
Goes to LeBron James. When he took his
talents to South Beach, Florida. James along with cohorts Chris Bosh and Dwyane
Wade figured they’d win a smattering of NBA titles. They went to the Finals
fourth straight years and in between won an Olympic Gold Medal to go with two
Larry O’Brien Trophies. However, last season, perhaps after consecutive long
campaigns in the NBA and FIBA, the Heat ran out gas against the
highly-motivated San Antonio Spurs. James played well in the finals while Bosh
and Wade disappeared. In the off-season, LBJ made another decision, this time,
to take his talents back to Ohio and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Only this time,
he wasn’t derided for that move. So much for winning a bunch of titles in
Miami.
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