I noticed there was the distinct flavor of reaction to Kate’s recent post in GRP: Gilas-Aussie brawl proves basketball is a TAMBAY sport in the Philippines A lot of people seem to believe that GRP writers should not even write about sports. Even more people think GRP writers should not write about anything. Well you guys are not aware of the roots of this website. A lot of us who ended up writing for this website were first big fans of this website. We were big fans because the writers here who may have been in Anti Pinoy or Filipino Voices before GRP were people who did not accept the BS that BS Aquino III was a viable president. So the writers here are used to fighting conventional thinking and used to swimming upstream. “We beg to differ” after all is the tagline.
More than a few people feel there should be no sports coverage in a website that often exposes a dysfunctional culture.
So it is in that spirit that I choose to respond to this clamor from some people not to write about sports by writing about sports. Along the way I will make fun of the critics who believe we should fit their expectations what sports writing is about. I doubt any of them will be enraged though because I may as well write this blog entry in Russian. Which may be rather appropriate if I did because they seem to believe in some Joseph Stalin/ Iron Curtain way of life if they are going to tell us what to write and not to write. This is Get Real Philippines not Get Real Pravda.
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I will deliberately troll you fools who think we should not write about sports and show you ultimately how little the pinoy culture really cares about sports and ultimately knows about sports. Notice I said sports plural not sport. The last time I wrote a sports blog I declared that I refused to watch the NBA Finals on ABS CBN because the broadcast has been overrun with Pinoy KSPs. In that blog I declared:
For a guy who allegedly should not write about sports no one has refuted this.
Basketball is the only team sport pinoys are capable of comprehending. That is sport as in singular. A notion that is rarely new and a notion that has never been refuted by all the people who get annoyed at my sports themed blogs . There are only 10 players in the playing area and all of them can shoot, pass and dribble. The ball and hoops are easy to see. So the best way to shut up critics of GRP sports writing is to write about a sport they don’t have the slightest clue about. Hint: any team sport that doesn’t start with the word “basket” and end with the word “ball”. Once you do that then the blog may as well be in Russian shutting up the ignorant GRP critics by showing them how ignorant they are about sports plural. Forcing a GRP critic to read about a team sport without two hoops is like forcing a tambay to read about quantum mechanics.
There actually is an Ateneo dugout. In baseball games they participate in. Pinoy sportswriters should consult a dictionary for every English word they use.
Who are GRP critics to tell GRP writers not to write about sports? In this country there are sports “journalists” who write about what passes for a sports scene in this country. These people are paid to write about sports. These people allegedly are formally trained in writing , reporting and how to use a dictionary. Pinoy sports journalists are as useless as pinoy basketball players because like everything else in this country, the standards are low. That is why one Olympic medal in 20 years has people so proud instead of being so ashamed. Pinoy sports writers often use the word dugout when they write stories about the only team sport they cover. Go to any dictionary and look up the word “dugout” and you will find : 1) there is a reason for those exact words. 2) nobody associates it in any indoors situation. If you don’t believe me , I did look it up. The sportswriters of the Philippines are too busy trying to sound cool that they don’t bother looking up words they use in the dictionary. Yet some people think GRP writers can’t touch sports?? Well neither should the people who you think are professional sports writers.
My stand on the pinoy culture being ignorant about the overall sports landscape is nothing new. A culture that elected a nil achieving senator to president definitely can not be that astute when it comes to sports. Recently I accused ESPN5 of dumbing down NFL coverage to the detriment of those who have enjoyed the coverage for years. Back in October of 2013 I wrote in GRP that there is no way pinoys will ever appreciate baseball because baseball is a thinking man’s game. Based of that barrier of entry ( thinking) baseball is safe from a pinoy invasion anytime soon.
Every year there is an argument around World Series time about people getting the advantage with the Designated Hitter or without the DH. I don’t know anybody that cares about baseball that is ambivalent to this issue. You are on one side or the other.
This is how I feel.
Baseball until the mid 70’s was played one way. If you played the field then you also got your turn at bat until you are removed from the game entirely. The American League ( half of Major League Baseball) decided at the time that their attendance would increase if they had more offense. So they exempted the pitcher from hitting and stuck in a guy who just hit. This guy during the game never handled the ball for any reason. Baseball is 9 guys on defense and those guys hit in a certain order when it’s their turn.
Get Real Philippines writers do know something about sports Nuke. They know about us.
Personally the great American pastime is all about playing the game of baseball however you want to interpret that. Baseball is fielding, hitting and base running. I just am of the camp that all players should do all those aspects. The DH is just an excuse for players not to work on defense. The DH is an excuse for pitchers not to work on hitting. Legendary catcher Crash Davis does not believe in the Designated Hitter. Shoeless Joe Jackson died not knowing what a Designated Hitter was.
The Designated Hitter sanitizes the game. Baseball is baseball. Warts and all. Give you an example that you basketball junkies can relate to. Would you allow for a rule that somebody else comes in and shoots Shaquille O’Neal’s foul shots? Nope, part of the game is you want him accountable. It’s like that in baseball even more. Pitchers who hit can be held accountable for their bean balls when it’s their turn to bat instead of having another player take it for me. Sorry that’s the manly way of doing it.
Since the beginning of baseball the universal rule is the more to the center of the diamond that you are, the more your lack of hitting can be excused. If pitchers are lousy hitters its because it has become a self fulfilling prophecy. Blinded American League junkies love to call the pitcher the designated out. It has just turned that way over time because of the DH rule.
Hitting a baseball is an incredibly hard thing to do. The top hitters in the Major Leagues fail more than 60% of the time. Pitchers are already handicapped since they do not play everyday so of course their hitting skills will be dim most of the time. The DH just legislated against versatility.
My stand against the DH has not changed in all these years. What has changed is that there is a louder clamor to do away with pitchers going to the plate in all of baseball. Like this article from the Ringer. Designated Hitters for everybody!!! People like Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian ( both of ESPN) believe this will happen in 5 to 10 years.
For many years one proposed solution is to make the rule uniform for both leagues. Either both use the DH or both do not use the DH. The latter solution will never happen under the watch of the MLBPA. For the simple reason is that the DH has meant more jobs. No union will ever allow a measure that will cost their brethren jobs unless you conjure up some sort of counter proposal that would make the loss worth it.
I hear about actual team officials from the American League going on record that their pitchers should not hit enough times on baseball talk shows but I could not find any recent evidence of it in Google . There was this about Hank Steinbrenner a decade ago though.
There is a reason though why I bring up the American League perspective. I would presume the National League officials experience less injuries to their pitchers from running the bases and taking swings on the plate because they do it all the time. Every solution I have heard on this problem proposes painting with a broad brush. Designated hitters for everybody as I said earlier. Why not meet them halfway if you want to avoid injuries to American League pitchers ? All inter league games in spring training, the regular season and the post season will have the DH rule in effect. All the pitchers will not hit in those games. National League pitchers will hit only when playing another National League team.
There you have it. My idea how to reduce injuries to American League pitchers. You are welcome Rob Manfred. I am not asking for much. Just a lifetime subscription to MLB Stream and a dictionary for every sports writer in the Philippines with the entry for the word dugout highlighted and bookmarked. Can you also send Ozzie Guillen and John Rocker down here to make fun of people who only watch basketball that think GRP writers are incapable of writing about sports. Sports as in plural.
Putting a very sharp needle into the balloon known as Pinoy Pride since 2012.
Then trolls just want us to shut up. Just being able churn out our opinion on our own space is an affront to them. lol
If you take into consideration the health of all positions in baseball, the pitcher gets the most abuse. Pitching 90-100 mph fastballs takes a lot of strain on the pitchers arm. If I was on team management, why would I allow the keystone of my defense at risk to injury? The Designated Hitter is there not only to take place of the pitcher during their turn on offense but also to preserve his health.
Ken. I really want to thank you for this since this is the first reply that will actually discuss baseball. The DH rule was put in to improve offense back in the mid 70s . It had nothing to do with protecting pitchers. Major league baseball already existed for 80 plus years at that point where all pitchers who were in the game hit. My premise is once you start the babying then everything else becomes an excuse. A long time ago I loved watching AAA baseball. Even there if your parent club is AL then you have the DH at home and your pitcher hits in the ballpark where the parent club is NL.
Having said that I strongly recommend one of my favorite baseball books Men at Work by George Will. He favors the DH even though he will always be a Cubs junkie . Great book. Thank you for tackling the topic as is as opposed to others who think I should have nothing to say when they can’t even understand this.
OMG, I never studied Journalism. I was an average English and Composition student. I just blog at GRP, for the fun of it. I discovered that I can write. However, in my early student years, I was good in the subject of History, Humanities and Philosophies. I loved to read about the past civilizations. About World History.
Instead, I ended up in the filed of Science and Technology. To those YellowTard Trolls, who want us to write what they want us to write; we can write anything, any subject under the sun. We have brains, and we have the knowledge and talent. We discovered also; we can think. Not like those YellowTard Trolls, who just follow blindly, what are told to them to do. Or are paid to write such things for their political patrons.
Anyway, I discovered that writing Blogs is also fun. Especially bringing up the Truth !
There. You understand why I wrote this. Critics can provide inspiration which was the premise of some other GRP writer’s post. Tambays tend to be offended if you go outside their narrow view of the world. Yes in the words of the great philosopher Hans Gruber who unfortunately perished Christmas Eve in Nakatomi ” the benefits of a classical education”. Which tambays will probably dismiss as “sosyal”. Thank you as usual. 46Hyden007Toro999667.32
What the trolls haven’t seemed to work out about us yet is that the more they tell us what not to write, the more we discover juicy no-go-zones to write about.
That’s being a true anti-fragile right there.
When people shout down others, it becomes a war of whose voice runs hoarse and dry first.
Okay, I’ll take you up on that…
How about you write about the achievements brought by the Aquino administration(s)? At least one non-sarcastic serious legitimate article dedicated to that. You could also praise the Aquino family to high heavens while you’re at it (oh wait, praising them might defeat the non-sarcastic serious tone).
You can’t do it, can you? You hate everything about BS Aquino that you’re denying any achievement he may have actually done. You’re just like every other person out there who has a partisan party, which right now is Duterte because he sucks up to Marcos pretty good.
Good luck. Hehehe
Personally, any GRP writer could do that but for one reason or another don’t. That said, GRP is open to anyone who is willing to step up to that task. You perhaps? 😉
Nah, I’m just a guest. Second, I have a political bias myself. I don’t like the Liberal Party, so I have extreme bias against them.
I just somehow tolerate Duterte’s admin because I believe in the concepts of “necessary evil” and “greater good”, something that had been proven beneficial since America nuked Japan. While I support those actions of “necessary evil”, I also believe that those performing the action have no right whatsoever to show pride in what they are doing.
That said, I’m a non-voter. That probably puts me in the “shut up nalang” camp, but I would like to believe I made a conscious decision to vote for abstinence.
Hah, dami kong sinabi. I just wanted to say my biases to show I am not qualified to make an article about Aquino’s achievements.
Too Easy.
I talk about Noynoy’s competence and how I regret judging him too harshly here.
I extol the virtues of Mar Roxas and how he was going to keep the Noynoy legacy going here.
Someone who claimed to be a classmate of Noynoy Aquino actually had an article here. But he extolled more the personal attributes of Aquino than his achievements. It just proved that supporters of Aquino are more personality worshippers than logical people with points. I would name signing a mental health benefits act and anti-DUI law as among the achievements of the 2nd Aquino admin. But they’re more worth mentioning in brief than writing at length about. That’s how little they mattered compared to the enormity of, say, the DAP scandal.
That guy personified the idiom “in over his skis”.
Can I veer off-topic a bit to raise some issues about the site?
I can’t seem to edit my own comment. Is it because I’m a guest? Also, I can’t comment further when a certain thread is 3~4 replies deep.
@RandomCitizen: No problem. The ability to modify a comment was part of a comment system enhancement plugin that we uninstalled because it was causing performance issues to our server. So we’re back to the vanilla no-frills commenting system. Just enter your erratum in a subsequent comment and, where applicable, an admin will incorporate the correction in your orginal comment and then delete the separate erratum comment.
We’ve also limited the comment nesting to just 3 deep (or is it 4-deep?). This is so comments render properly on smartphone screens. We’ve had to increasingly take this into account because the proportion of users using mobile to access GRP has been progressively increasing.
(I still managed to reply here, and this is 4-deep I guess? Then pretty sure nothing could follow here further)
That erratum post sounds too much of a work, and it also involves admin intervention. I guess I would just let it slide if my errors are minor.
Have you considered commenting services like Disqus? Not sure if that’s free though, or perhaps you don’t like it for some reason? Also in Disqus, after a certain depth of replies, the comments would stop indenting and they’ll all line up with, say, the 4-deep reply. If this commenting section is your custom script, perhaps you might like to consider that?
@Gogs, can you possibly provide simple answers to simple questions?
1. Can you actually write the article in russian? Why don’t you surprise the supposedly ignorant!
If everything else in this country, to you, are of low standards:
2. What will constitute a high standard for this third world country given the reality it has today under the leadership of President Duterte?
3. If you have a beef with Philippine sports, why do you seek refuge from what is not from yours? Is your identifying with Western Sports a validation of what contitutes a higher standard?
4. What makes you any different from other Pinoys and, if not, what exactly makes you of a different breed?
5. What separates you from others? And what actually have you or what do you intend to contribute towards the achievement of that higher standard?
1. I could have used Swahili or Norwegian as an analogy. The original point is the angry mob insists that Get Real Post should refrain from writing about sports. So my hypothesis is go against their wishes and see what the critics would say about what I actually wrote. It seems like they are just angry that I wrote it. They can not mock what I wrote since what I did write may as well be in Russian. You can’t mock someone’s Russian if you don’t understand Russian. I chose to write about sports to the dismay of the tambays. I went outside the tambay culture which seems to have you in knots. I just hate the idea of a mob telling me what to write or not to write when they themselves only know one sport. Wasn’t that stated very clearly in the premise of my opinion piece and of course ultimately true?
2. High standards? You can read what I wrote about 3 & 1 being considered a high standard when no one else cares about it.
3. Who are you to tell me what is mine? I can enjoy what I want. I had this suspicion that the same people being defensive about a lousy basketball team and tambay culture only had their horizons limited to tambay culture. Oh, I love those guys telling me what to limit my horizons to. Please read the sub heading of this website.
Refuge in Western sports?? Last I looked basketball was invented by Dr. Naismith . Who is not American even if he was in America when he started it. Anybody who gives a damn about the NBA and not watching cock fighting is taking refuge in a Western sport. PBA is modeled after the NBA , a Western league. In the New York/ New Jersey area the following teams play: New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, New York Jets, New York Giants, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New York Mets, New York Yankees. A Russian owns the Nets. Many different nationalities play for the Rangers, Yankees, Islanders and Mets. Your use of the word refuge is puzzling since all those different nationalities are taking refuge in terms of their livelihood.
4. What makes me different? Other than I hate noon time TV, local commercials and I don’t believe the fact someone’s mom died is a good reason to vote for them as president? I have three ears.
5. What separates me from others? – To this day I mourn the loss of Rico Yan. I also have been told I look like Marty Feldman.
Conclusion:
GRP critics only know basketball yet use the word “sports” when dictating to GRP what to write . Isn’t that typical of pinoys who do not appreciate how to communicate accurately? Which was exactly my point in what I wrote. Read it again. Keep in mind the precise meaning of words as well the difference between singular and plural. Also You may want to work on your perception of what a Western sport is.
I love sports and I love writing. Some people feel I should not combine the two because 1) I am not beholden to the national team 2) my sports horizons surpass basketball. Ultimately, thank you for your questions though I did answer some of them in the original piece. My choice for Russian as an analogy was not by accident. The critics want us to conform to their values. They are offended by the ideas we present. I have been articulating my views here for six years. I write what I want to write. Something that would not be possible at the height of the former Soviet Union. Which our critics seem to want to invoke.
That conclusion is bullcrap.
The “sports” commentary so far are about the brawl, not basketball at all. If you really insist on precision, then the blog posts are just commentaries on the brawl that happened between the Gilas team and the Australian team.
Ad hominem. The tool of someone who can’t refute the content. All adjectives directed towards me without any basis other than lack of comprehension of the topic. Which proves my point.
There will always be trolls. Deal with it.
And then there will always be bad articles here and there. And Kat’s Gilas-Aussie brawl article is a good example of a bad article.
Let me give you an example on how a non-professional basketball player can write a good critical analysis of professional basketball players:
“Michael Jordan vs Lebron James
A lot of people debate this subject: Who is the GOAT? Lebron or Jordan? For me it’s Jordan. Its not just about the stats or the rings at all. It is also about actual skills and talents and the results of those 2 in their professional career.
Here’s my take. If Jordan had the height and physique of Lebron, do you think he needs to do those impressive footwork to be able to drive into the basket? Hell no. He will physically dominate most of the players.
Now if Lebron has the physique of Jordan, will Lebron settle with his current play style? Hell no. He will need to do more than just mow down defenders. He will need to do footwork. He will be to be innovative in driving through the basket.
That is why I pick Jordan as the GOAT. He is just more skillful and talented than Lebron. And it make Jordan the player with more accolades.”
-END-
The thing is when it comes to writing about a sport, it is always better if you play that sport as well. You have better insights on why the team is playing a particular defense against one team and another one for the other.
Even in actual conversations about sports, you will see the difference in how non-players speak of the sports compared to those who actually play it.
Based on what the pinoys are currently proud of then the analysis of that fateful night should be left to Teddy Atlas, Ferdie Pacheco and Bert Sugar.
We’re not only providing sports commentary. As always, we talk about the dysfunctions of Philippine society. And they turn up everywhere, even in sports, not just in politics.
Anyway, the thing that any commentary can’t upend – the rules. If it’s the rules that certain players are suspended, no amount of commentary will change that. Perhaps some Gilas supporters want their idols’ suspension lifted – but that’s impunity. It’ll be no different than what we hate about politicos here.
You two are missing the point. Commenting about a brawl is easy. Saying that the brawl SHOULD NOT have happened is much easier.
What is usually rare is the asking the question “HOW IT ENDED THAT WAY(A BRAWL)?”
This type of response is particularly common from post-modernist minded people. Typical lines that abandon thinking such as “there is no reason to hit a woman”, “violence is never the answer”, and the like.
It is as if the brawl came out of a vacuum.
No amount of self-righteous posturing is ever going to end all brawls in the future happening on sports events. In the end of it all, if you happen to be in a brawl, what do you do or how you respond to deal with the situation is all that matters, the world’s judgment be damned.
That’s exactly what the articles here have been answering… The root cause of why the brawl happened the way it did. This root cause goes way deeper than basketball as we writers have been pointing out. Your analysis is confined within the hardcourt. Our analysis encompasses the bigger picture. So it seems it is you, Tobias, who is actually missing the bigger point.
Incorrect. YOU DO KNOW THAT THE 2 comments from ChinoF and Gogs are reponses to my mine, right? They are responding to my comment @July 5, 2018 at 4:24 pm.
And if you are referring to all the articles about the brawl between Gilas and the Aussie team, then you are still wrong about the bigger point of THIS blogpost is this:
“A lot of people seem to believe that GRP writers should not even write about sports.”
Let me spell it out then: Writing about a brawl that happened on a basketball game is not writing about the sports basketball.
Nope. I’m correct. The brawl is EVERYTHING about not just Philippine basketball but Philippine sports as well and goes far beyond just sports to encompass everything about the very core character of the Filipino.
Tobias, you do realize the proud to be pinoy types talk about the brawl in lieu of talking about the actual game and talking about the actual score. And that is fair game when discussing pinoy culture. Let’s claim victory somewhere else since we always lose in the scoreboard despite the fact it is the only team sport the nation engages in. Pinoys have to be proud of something. In case you missed it tons of GRP content is based on that paradox of pinoy pride in the absence of pinoy results. Either accept that as reality or avoid GRP since we will always make fun of that pinoy paradox.
Again, benign0, that is not the point of this blogpost nor my comment where YOU RESPONDED. You can claim all the point of the others all you want. It is irrelevant to the topic here.
I can address the point you are raising if you want regarding the root causes of the brawl and about the “very core character of the Filipino” but start another thread.
Gog, talking about pinoy culture is not talking about sports. I understand perfectly well that the brawl was during a basketball match. Remember you posted this: “A lot of people seem to believe that GRP writers should not even write about sports. ”
And included a photo saying about being a sport analysts is BS.
I have criticized several GRP posts in the past and I will continue to do so if I find it necessary. That is the reality that you will always face here.
While I disagree with you about the GOAT; I believe you make good points except for your last paragraph. Usually the best writers, commentators and (even coaches) are fringe athletes at best, but who know the sport. Here’s an example from football, (not soccer) in Tony Dungy. Mr. Dungy was an okay college player who eventually played a short while with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As player:
Pittsburgh Steelers (1977–1978)
San Francisco 49ers (1979)
New York Giants (1980)*
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only
When his playing career ended he started coaching, first with the Steelers and worked his way up the ranks from a position coach to eventually set records for getting his teams into the playoffs as a head coach. He retired several years ago and has been enshrined in the Hall of Fame as a coach. As a player he was insignificant, but as a coach, magnificent.
Most sports writers simply have knowledge of the sport even if they never played at a high level, but they study the sport and also can write objectively. Good players are seldom good writers so that is why I disagree with your final conclusion. I also have a bit of basketball knowledge even though I never played the sport. For that reason I can tell you in only a few words why Filipino teams never win at basketball. “Filipinos do not understand the concept that basketball is a TEAM SPORT that involves passing and play making, not just one on one play where the first guy with the ball is the last guy with the ball and always the one who shoots.”
You do realize Jerry in my case you are preaching to the choir. Also one of the readers brought up the GOAT not me. Maybe you missed it when I talked about Tommy Lasorda the same way you described Dungy. Dungy was a college QB in Minnesota but because of society/ football being what it was at the time he had to be converted to safety in the pros. Same as a safety on one of the Lombardi teams if I recall. I love football and tons of what I write is sprinkled with analogies that are not from the basketball realm. So I resent the bozos who think they can pigeonhole us. I simply wrote about a sport that they know nothing about and they still hate me. Last NFL game I saw in person was a Dungy coached team. I recommend his book Quiet Strength.
“Most sports writers simply have knowledge of the sport even if they never played at a high level, but they study the sport and also can write objectively. ”
Which is why most sports writers are bad at their craft. It is the sports writers who also play the sports that they write about who really write good sports analysis and comments. This is because they know what they are talking both in theory and in practice.
Since this country is the only one in the world that focuses on basketball then I am assuming some of the sports writers played basketball. So if you played basketball as well as trained in writing then why are they clueless what a dugout is??
I doubt this country only focuses on basketball. I think you need to go out more or get your head out of the gilas vs aussie brawl. Filipinos are also into billiards, boxing, football and badminton.
Point to one example where the sports writers show ignorance of the term dugout.
Or are you implying a different meaning to the term?
Gee Tobias, for a smart guy you can’t even follow the links I painstakingly put in to back up my points . Since you love focusing on Kate , Chino and I to Google well here are a few examples and not embedded in the text this time. 1) https://www.spin.ph/basketball/d-league/blackwater-plans-to-go-after-security-agency-over-ateneo-dugout-heist 2) https://twitter.com/benggadora08/status/859304633549832192 3) https://www.ateneo.edu/news/sports/overheard-ateneo-gallery-deeper-meaning-life-protocols
Of course this country focuses on basketball. Who was the last billiards player you looked at and wished he was on Gilas?? I know it;s a novel problem because other countries face it. Athletes they wish were playing basketball but they are in soccer. Basketball in this country has no such drain on their “talent” pool. One Olympic medal in 20 years?? No drain there.
I see. They did misuse the term. But they misused a baseball/football term.
Again, no, this country is not just focused on basketball. I mean seriously, go roam around, especially near universities. You will see more people fill up a billiards joints than basketball courts. Badminton courts are also almost always full during weekdays.
I think you should claim that the media is more focused on basketball, not the Filipino people. That would be accurate.
And why would I want/wish a billiard player to be part of Gilas?
I am talking about the elite of the elite athletes. People play badminton for fun. Many athletes who make their living playing football, hockey, basketball play golf for fun. The US has the world’s best basketball , baseball and hockey. Look at the quality of athlete playing Quarterback or Wide Receiver. Every 4 years there is always talk that all their best athletes went to those sports that the ones left over for soccer can not compete in the World Cup. That is the focus I am talking about. But this is the Philippines . The best of the best in this small pond focus on basketball and no other sport takes away from the basketball focus. None.
Dugout is not a football term. The American football sideline is very similar to a soccer sideline. Players stand very close to the sideline and some weasels actually take advantage of that fact and trip the opposition who are running down in close proximity. A baseball dugout actually has stairs that lead down. Making the benches literally underground. That is why a pop up that is near the opponent dugout can be interesting.
“People play badminton for fun. Many athletes who make their living playing football, hockey, basketball play golf for fun. ”
That is just a ridiculous generalization. There are more badminton tourneys in my FB wall than there are baskeball tourneys. There is even considerable amount of betting in FIFA as there is on NBA finals among several companies where I have friends(since I join the betting with these people as well). Same is true during the time when Pacquiao pre-senatorial days.
The focus you are claiming with regards to basketball is simply due the the investors willing to spend on a sports league. And they just happen to focus more on basketball here in our country. So you are incorrect with your claim that Philippines is focused on basketball. If that is your sole basis then it can even be argued that Philippines is more focused on boxing than basketball.
You are free to be a purist when it comes to sports terms. But there is a football dugout, which is part of the technical area.
You can’t show me an international competition that pinoys care about 10% as much basketball. In fact get all the other competitions combined and they can’t beat the pinoy concentration on basketball. Stop being pro tambay. They spend all their time, love and betting money on basketball. The tambay focus is the nation’s focus. Tambays do not tambay in a soccer game or men’s volleyball. Your “competitors” go to basketball and Australia which rather focus on cricket, soccer , rugby , Aussie rules football beats Philippines ( Team Tambay) by 36 points. So they resort to bragging about the brawl. Don’t give me this crap that any other sport dilutes the product of Gilas. This nation cares about a Pacquaio fight and no other individual athlete comes close. They care only about the Azkals and no other soccer team. Go to any tambay gathering and they will all have basketball jerseys.
The tambay’s focus is the nation’s focus? Now I understand the source of such an idiotic reaction to the tambay culture.
“Stop being pro tambay.” – Nice strawman there.
The oversimplistic notion that tambay culture lead to sports brawl is not something I expected from this blog. Sports brawl is not unique to Filipinos. Hell, its not even unique to 3rd worlders. So stop making that lie.
“You can’t show me an international competition that pinoys care about 10% as much basketball.” – You can’t really be that stupid. YOU DID NOT DO THE MATH to even have a concrete idea how much Pinoys care about football, billiards and even e-sport. All you have is an anecdote that is just as relevant as everybody else’s anecdotal experience. So stop making shit up to substantiate your silly position.
Tobias, this is the last response. Since it seems you spent all of about 1 minute reading the original post I spent enough time away from doing meth ( as opposed to doing math) just to answer you. If a GRP writer talked about soccer or e games or a badminton competition/ brawl none of you trolls would be here telling us what to write. Gilas, Ginebra and Lakers is what drives the consciousness of the nation. That is what is in the sports section and stop giving me niche sports that do not drive the discussion. Maybe badminton fanatics have their own idols but don’t convince me anything about badminton makes a dent when it comes to this country’s obsession with the only team sport for men that moves the meter basketball. Badminton and e sports are only that very narrow demographic that basketball dwarfs. Anyway, I have a feeling you will want to argue more as well as preach more how this website should frame their opinions and you might as well make another burner account.
Is it safe to say the fact everything said about this entry in the FB page of GRP is ad hominem, a sign that my hypothesis was right? By writing something about sports to provoke the people who say we should not write about sports I attracted a lot of negative comments. Yet not one of those negative comments was about the sport that I wrote about and just their unchanging call to mute the website when it comes to sports issues. Don’t you think if they had any brains their arguments would have something about the sport issues in the topic? Well the beauty of writing for GRP is the trolls come to us.
Was it a rant or analysis? You admit to reading it , I doubt you understood it. Since you did not substantiate your conclusion you come across as Leni telling the press it is merienda time.
You refer to GRP like it is one big herd. I appreciate you telling us we can do better. It is my first motivational talk.
Amina, all that time I invested in writing this and you can’t even say why I was never into sports? Plural? You must have me confused with a tunnel vision, close minded , kamiseta wearing tambay who only knows basketball.
All the writers here who responded to Gilas Aussie Brawl For It All have been called worse over more significant issues. The fact that you think you won is why we love aggravating you with blogs that are over the heads of those that wish to preserve tambay culture.
Thadeo, you do realize that if you want to motivate a person, tell them they can’t do something. If you want to motivate a pinoy to cross a busy street you put a sign there telling them they can’t and some metal fences of reasonable height. If you want to make a place smell bad then make a sign for pinoys saying Bawal Umihi Dito. I also realize pinoys love playing the victim card when they can’t play the only sport they focus on at a respectable level in international competition. I also realize you resort to using ” stupid opinionated analyzation” as a red herring since you did not understand a word I wrote on a topic you choose to insult me in confirming my theory that the tambays only know basketball.
LOL, Gogs, in the end, so many people want us to shut up about sports, but here’s the rub: what can they do to make us shut up? Any law they can base charges against us on so they can force us to stop? None. Sports is a free for all, and whether one writes as an analyst or not, anybody can write anything. Which is exactly the point about blogging. We can write anything we want, try and stop us. Want to “hold us responsible” for anything, again, go ahead and try. Try and close down our site by force, you’re the ones playing dirty, and we’ll fight back. Indeed, try and stop us.
They defend a free-for-all brawl but oppose free-for-all writing. Lol! Mga bugok nga talaga.
Yes benigno. We will defend a brawl and we will declare ourselves the winner of a brawl and let ‘s ignore the scoreboard. And you can’t write about any sports. Where do they get these guys?
And it is obvious Chino they don’t read what you wrote anyway. Their sensibilities are still disturbed, Like you yourself questioned about the whole dugout idea, The tambay pinoy paradox of we won’t read but you can’t write what we won’t read.
Yeah, just call me a troll. Easier to do, like making baseless blanket statements.
Burner account? Cute. That is the first time someone accused me of such here.
But hey, who am I, right, to the *infallible writers* of GRP.
Aussie elbows a Gilas player. Another Gilas player sees this and retaliates. Other Aussie players go on attack. Then another Gilas player reacts. Brawl occurs.
Conclusion: Pinoy Tambay Culture reason behind shameful brawl.
Surely for you that is a good and logical conclusion. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
But hey, what ever makes you sleep at night. At the end of it all, its not the judgment of others that matters, right? But what you think is right for you. And you will just tell others what is acceptable, what is shameful and what they should be proud of. Someone else do that to you? They are just trolls and burner accounts because you say so.
You still show no evidence of reading this post and yet you engage and accuse in this post several times which of course is trolling. I never made a post about the brawl. I did use tambay culture to describe 1) the nose out of joint people who are offended by the brawl and defending Gilas at all costs. And of course ignoring the scoreboard yet claiming any kind of victory. 2) tambay culture applies to the same people noontime shows and the PBA target. They can only relate to a sport. Every single troll in this post and in the FB page did not mention once the merits or demerits of the sport I was actually talking about. Entitled tambays who attack a post that they won’t bother to read. Isn’t the whole idea of ” GRP should not write about sports” the epitome of blanket statements? That is a whole bunch of writers and a whole bunch of sports.
“You still show no evidence of reading this post.”
Why should I show evidence? When was that even an issue to begin with?
“you engage and accuse in this post several times which of course is trolling. ”
Accused. I simply call a spade a spade. This blogpost of yours is just to address all those who are telling you what you should and should not write about. So merit and demerit are you blabbering about?
And SO WHAT if there are people telling you what to do? You are also telling people what to do. And you are a grown-ass man ffs. Just do what you want to do and let others be as well.
” I never made a post about the brawl. ”
Irrelevant. YOU ARE IN FAVOR OF THOSE POSTS ABOUT THE BRAWL.
“Isn’t the whole idea of ” GRP should not write about sports” the epitome of blanket statements? ”
If that is the epitome for you, then whatever makes you happy. But it isn’t. Your blanket statements are much worst. And you even complain about people using ad hominem on.
The whole trouble with Pinoys is their notion of “retaliation” — by brawling instead of playing better and winning. Loser mentality in short. And the outcome of that mentality is, wait for it… Losing.
The double standard is their Pinoy way after all. lol
Tambays wish GRP would cover tambay issues with the tambay perspective that please tambays. Anything else is unacceptable and they will want you to cease and desist .
Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.
Another from the FB page
Gee Jerome Magno. You don’t mention any content from the post. Could it be you spent all your brain cells composing that amazing sentence you had nothing left to comprehend the post?
“The whole trouble with Pinoys is their notion of “retaliation” — by brawling instead of playing better and winning. Loser mentality in short. And the outcome of that mentality is, wait for it… Losing.”
In an effort to stick it up with GRP’s dictum, inspired by Fallows’ observation in his 1987 article, even if modified, every argument has become a monotonously unilateral and outrightly one-sided view to every opposing views (well, mostly!).
GRP’s every arguments have thus become MORE ABOUT IN DEFENSE OF ITS UNDERLINING HYPOTHESIS, more than the actual pros and cons in every issue.
Although the merits to its cause is commendable, the problem with GRP’s approach is within their whole idea of aligning everything in agreement to its views that would make it come together in support, again, of its “We beg to differ”.
In short, the presence of preconceived bias is there, and in the long run, arguable inconsistencies that tend to happen will have to be universally ignored just in support of its aim.
But then of course, as always, GRP won’t back down. What about it exactly? Either you’re just butt-hurt or missed the point! Impartiality becomes just a conditional option!
The whole trouble with opinions, with their unique aspect of being potentially right and potentially wrong, with their merits and demerits, with their validity and invalidity of arguments, is within the notion of who commands control of the arena and then who gets to choose the perspective or angle with the supposed issues and who becomes the final arbiter, with what measurable criteria?
The case in point, benign0’s take on the issue above leaning towards sportsmanship (curiously applied only to Gilas!) which can be correct but so does the take of one commenter in another posted article:
‘Wag Pikon says:
July 6, 2018 at 4:38 pm
“I agree the Australians started it. (by ChinoF)”
It’s a good thing that someone from GRP still has the humility to finally admit the rude foreign thuggery of a 6’10 Kickert elbowing a 6’2 Pogoy from behind on a deadball situation.
Those Pikon Aussies learned the hard way. As visitors in a foreign land they should be mindful of their actions. Behave and your host will do the same. If only they have done so, their glory of winning should have been complete and what happened should have been avoided.
Winning or loosing in a game is a different matter. Though the boys will have to work harder on this department!
But standing up to a foreign bullying, in our own turf, is another. Foreign intimidation has to be dealt with. GRP obviously isn’t bothered when Dutetrte is doing with it, so why change course?
The concept of pakisama, pakiusap, paubaya…, in this instance, must end and should not be accorded to those unwilling to extend the same. Let them have it! Tit for tat!
But that’s what a hypothesis is — tentative answer against which various theories, conjectures, and propositions are tested. And, so far, it has consistently tested positive.
See the excuse there, Time Out! ? Then the segue to the hypothesis becoming a theory allegedly tested to yield positive consistently?
If that were the case, a brawl must occur every time Gilas is getting “tambak” by their opponent because they have “tambay” mentality.
But no, it doesn’t. Then a brawl happened. Therefore “tambay culture” is to blame.
Its like waiting for what you want to happen based on your hypothesis, then BOOM, it somehow proves your point AFTER THE FACT.
But it doesn’t. Brawls is not limited to Filipinos. So one has to take the patently stupid hypothesis and somehow adjust it to explain brawls happening in Europe during sports events. Or, better yet, since Filipinos are said be focused on basketball alone, NBA brawls. I guess everyone in world has Filipino’s tambay mentality as well.
The cause of brawl, as pointed out before and now by you, Time Out! is correct: the Aussie’s sucker elbow against one of Gilas’ players during a deadball. And that’s all there is to it.
These whole series of blogposts pointing to another more complex cause is just wasted rationalization at best and mental masturbation at worst.
I believe that despite the Australian guys elbow, Gilas could have avoided the “tambay” type of response. Tambay is not misplaced here. The idea is that tambays likely behave the same way. I called it resbak, because one opponent fouled big, most of the team ganged up on him. It’s a tambay way of doing things. And it got its result: most of Gilas were suspended as compared to the Australians. It’s similar to a gang caught in its rumble by the police; they spend the night in the slammer. In this testing of theories, ideas, analogies and what-have-you, it seems to be basis of what checks out is the result. I doubt that result of suspension is going to be lifted soon. We can wish, but let’s see.
In a manner of saying, because we’re supposedly not cool about sportmanship, the implied suggestion NOT to stand up to foreign vistors’ bullying and intimidation and back down to those ‘Pikon’ Aussies’ aggression, in effect, is the more preferred loser mentality that Grp decidingly wants Gilas to adhere to?
When we have moving pictures, as proof, that says it all, it makes you wonder if too much intelligence make the eyes go blind.
ChinoF is simply saying that the other Gilas players and officials there could have just grab the Aussies to stop further violence. Then again, the Aussies could have shove them off due to sheer size difference. Maybe then, when the Aussies would really not stop giving a beating, that ChinoF would consider a violent solution to be the only option left.
Nope, instead of so many players joining in, let Blatche, Pogoy and only a few others attack Kickert. The rest shouldn’t have joined in. Or, just hold themselves back and let the officials decide. Perhaps grab Blatche and tell him to hold it. Kickert and perhaps Goulding would have been kicked from the game. Problem is, because they decided on the violent option, most of the team got kicked. Options are not so limited.
I suppose the fantards hate this thing from Fox Sport Ph, too. Which I agree withi. lol
“Tambay is not misplaced here.”
Time Out’s observation of GRP’s selective application of preconceived bias rings true. It is evidently clear with Chinof’s argument above- how Gilas’ “tambay” type of response could have been avoided, but choose not to mention, how his initial argument could also have been the applied with the Aussies’ “tambay” type of attacks and intimidation, which will yield the same result.
A “tambay” response is an outcome of a “tambay” attack that cannot go the other way…in reverse. But, in observation, GRP has a Reverse-Filipino Pride. I suppose it’s one inconsistency that can be observed.
“Reverse Filipino Pride?” Sounds like that inverse rape baloney that I saw a while back. lol
The positive view can only be considered acceptable when universally embraced by a greater collective and not by just a group banded together by a foreign borrowed unique view; while its consistency can only be considered if universally applied to everything and not selectively positioned to suit its own agenda!
In other words it must be encompassing to all or to the greater many. Not just to a select few who distance themselves, short of proclaiming and/or claiming as being smarter than others!
That is one hypothesis that you may need to test too, that there are others out there smarter than us.
Aha! The Reverse Filipino Pride!
I just have a feeling that whatever the outcome will be in the coming Manny Pacquiao-Lucas Matthysse bout, win or lose, GRP bloggers will still have their same securely positioned sentiment.
By then, it will be a field day all over again… watch for it!
Great idea !!!! http://getrealphilippines.com/2016/07/manny-wanting-time-off/