by Ding Marcelo The 2017 Southeast Asian Games are weeks away, but the Philippines has jumped the gun on its rivals, scoring a big win even before rival countries can send their athletes limbering up for their events. As early as now, the Philippines, the chosen host of the 2019...
Eduardo 'Dodo' Catacutan Jr., former assistant sports editor of Manila Bulletin and now editor of SPIN.ph., has been elected president of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA). Catacutan, who has been into sports writing for the past 29 years and previously worked, as well, for the Manila Times, People’s Journal and...
by Ding Marcelo The first time I wrote a sports story for the Manila Bulletin from the field, I had to dictate the story word-for-word to a fellow back in the office, sometimes spelling out words, letter-for-letter, and repeating whole phrases, almost in exasperation, because the line was poor. I...
By Ding Marcelo The PBA has had many absurd moments like that instance when one commissioner lifted the ball that selected the team to get the No. 1 overall draft pick without first showing a clean and empty hand. But equally unfathomable happened several days ago when a team...
By Ding Marcelo Each time the Masters comes around, which is this time of the year, the heart palpitates with excitement. I wake up at around 3 a.m. to catch the game “live” on TV, beamed directly from the US. I do this because golf is my game even if...
by Ding Marcelo Game-fixing, the scourge of sports organizers, teams, and law enforcement authorities, has grabbed headlines again after Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr. accused former PBA great Ramon Fernandez of the criminal practice during a PSA Forum last February. Cojuangco said he has reliable information that Fernandez...
by Ding Marcelo The fallout from the Philippine Olympic Committee’s mismanagement of the leadership issue at Philta has finally arrived. And it does not look good. Ignited by the shameless power grab of retired Col. Buddy Andrada and his equally shameless cohorts at the Philta board, the Philippines will now...
by Ding Marcelo The ongoing word war between the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), particularly between POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. and PSC member Ramon Fernandez, is hardly doing Philippine sports any good. Philippine sports need all the unity it can get to lift it...
by Ding Marcelo Canlubang, Laguna — For the second straight day, players seemed to have lost their way navigating the long and treacherous The Country Club course which produced another wave of embarrassing scores as the Solaire Philippine Open moved into the realm of the absurd. Set up as though...
by Ding Marcelo The acclamation of Salvador Andrada as president of the Philippine Tennis Association is not a surprise. It is symptomatic of what is wrong with Philippine sports and why it is the laughing stock of every nation around the region. With a compliant board composed mainly of people...
