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.

Monday, September 7, 2015

My four books!


My four books! Counter clockwise: 

THE 18th BANNER (about Ateneo's Season 71 run to the championship). A very detailed story that takes you behind the scenes from the end of Season 70 right up to the Mass at the Church of the Gesu that closed out the first crown of the five-peat. There are lots of side bars from adidas' historic sponsorship, the skinny on the Norman Black tribute, and the ultimatum! 

Included here FIVE is about the five-peat of Ateneo was difficult to reconstruct as it was written some six months after the achievement. I didn't keep too many notes and had to reconstruct a lot of it. It is probably my least favorite ONLY because it was written retroactively.  

11 DAYS IN AUGUST I made sure to keep notes as the events unfolded. Having closely followed the national team since 2008 made it easier to write. The book was planned with risk involved. We didn't have funding or a publisher at that time but we went ahead. Only when the win against Korea was secured did we get a go signal to finish the book.

And having said that, both THE 18th BANNER and 11 DAYS IN AUGUST are my favorites. I guess you can say that it was written as they unfolded so it was easier and I knew what to look for. 

THE NU CHAMPION! is something I enjoyed writing. I have closely followed the NU team since I was in high school and writing this took me back. If you don't know about this, their late coach, Sonny Paguia was my neighbour and he had this small restaurant where the Bulldogs would oft go. I got to know many of the players and enjoyed watching them even if they were league doormats. Sort of like the Bad News Bears. 

About seven years ago, Eric Altamirano and I shared the same flight to Bacolod. I was there for a football event while Coach was there for a basketball tournament. He asked me to write a book, a biography to be exact, and I pondered it and am now getting a chance to do so. At that time, writing a book was far from reality. I mean it was a dream, a goal, and something on my bucket list. And eventually it all happened. Little did I know, I write a book that included Coach E! Talk about coming full circle. 

I have a couple of book projects coming up. The one I have gone on record to say if the book on Coach Baby Dalupan and a biography of a senator. Then I'll finish off my long-postponed books of my adventures. Then by May next year, a book that features the best of Bleachers Brew as it will be the 10th Anniversary of my blog and column.

Hope you guys give my stuff a try.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Rick, Where can I order these books? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete