SPORTING JOURNEY: Travel Time

One of the side perks in doing sports is all the travel that one will do. Not the traveling that many players do in basketball, but real travel; town to town travel, be it by road, by sea, or by air. If you don’t know by now, not only are our players are exported overseas to play basketball or volleyball, but also some of the talents that make the game possible. Be it on the broadcasting end such as production crew, cameramen, TV talents, or on the game’s technical side such as table officials, statisticians, and court announcers, they are brought overseas. So with the abundance of the leagues here in the country, plus the call of the fans to bring the games closer to where they are, be it here or abroad, travel is a huge part of it.

And I am here to make kwento about my memorable sporting travels as part of this year-end kwentuhan that you are going through with me.

For starters, there are venues that made a mark to me that can be stated in a single or a couple of statements for a variety of reasons. One is the Gen. Trias Sports Center in Gen. Trias, Cavite. It was a smooth drive to get there and it’s one of the roads I haven’t gone to that’s why it was somewhat stuck on my head. But what really got me was the unbelievable heat of that venue. It was like we were playing on Planet Mercury that time.

Okay that wasn’t a single or a couple statement. That was a paragraph long. Let’s make it really short this time.

Imus: braved the storm to get there. UE Lady Warriors didn’t make it because of the class suspension due to the storm, so Foton asked fans to compete with them. And the locals right there were ecstatic to play against them, even for just five points. For the young fans who played against Jaja Santiago and company, it was a big deal for them specially those who are really seriously considering playing volleyball at a real competitive level. Those are their sports heroes and they we able to play against them!

Still long! Let’s make it brief.

Batangas City: Had my second serving of Loming Batangas in my lifetime. Looking forward to it just so I can confirm the fact that the kind of Loming Batangas I had the first time in Lipa City is truly the kind of Lomi that they do in Batangas compared to what we got used to here in the Metro, or in my lifetime for that matter. And true enough, that was Loming Batangas; real brown soup base, just pork or beef meat, eggs, chicharon, and a jar of starch. I am now so confused about Lomi. But on that day I had my second Loming Batangas in my lifetime, I saw how Gygy Silva destroyed volleyball boxscores and volleyballs with that phenomenal 56-point performance. It was on the fourth set when I started asking people around me while I call the game, “Ilang puntos na kaya nagagawa ni Silva?” After the game, that’s when I found out. Sad thing, however, they lost the game.

Ang haba pa din! Serious attempt to make it short.

Naga City: From San Juan Arena on a Friday, I made the travel directly to Naga to call a set of basketball games. Just remembered having a great laing on a lunch on one day, and totally ignoring nightlife with some fellas because I was knocked out Saturday night after the game… asleep. There!!! A short story! But wait… this is where that something significant came from. Anyways, that is a long story and it deserves another entry for that.

No short statements. All attempts have been futile.

One journey, no matter how short or long it is, has its story to tell. A memory that one can create and brings it back with them as a tale to tell others. Like I said before, there is a joy in recalling all the memories, all the things, all the stories, all the experiences that one had in a month, a year, or in a travel to a place no one will find. If you are a kind of person who always looks forward to something or to a goal in life, looking back will be a big help just to check how far you have gone since you began.

And of course to share these happy memories. Just like my travel to Baguio.

I have never been to Baguio in my lifetime, or as my mom would insist I have been there when I was a toddler, but I don’t count that. The reason why I love driving to Tagaytay is to experience the natural cool weather of the outdoors. Naturally, Baguio City will be appealing to me. I just didn’t have the time, practical reasons, or economic reasons to get there. So when Dr. Ian Laurel gave me a call asking me to come with them to Baguio so I can host the PSL tour there the next day… NO QUESTIONS ASKED! LET’S GO!!!

We started our day early morning Saturday, and we were on the road for the ENTIRE day. A breakfast stopover that went a couple of hours long unintentionally, and a disaster stricken Marcos Highway. We never made it on time for the meet-and-greet mall show, but we pushed through, and the fans waited for the players. It was raining vegetables and strawberries on our banquet, and of course the cold weather. A great tasting coffee to greet us in the mornings while we were there. And of course Baguio City locals enjoyed fun volleyball action courtesy of the girls from PSL.

Leisure was part of the trip as well. Our delegation paid a visit to the Philippine Military Academy. The great heroes back there gave us a short tour of the camp and even prepared us a feast so we can join them in their boodle fight. For sure some truths were uncovered among those ladies kung sino talaga ang malakas kumain.

And perhaps the best part of the trip is on our way home, where I really got acquainted with the players. I have my deck of cards with me that I brought along the trip and just decided to use it on our way back. And in the middle of the road, me, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, and Ces Molina found Philippine Sugal Liga. Those two ladies were the main advocates of that gambling trip that night, and I just had the means. At this moment, we would like to thank Ivy Carlos, Mika Lopez, Carol Cerveza, and Mei-Lin Lozada for their valuable monetary contributions to the Philippine Sugal Liga conference that night, the night where Aiza blew a couple of maximum bets in the game, thus making here the Chief Financial Officer of the league.

True enough, travelling on different places (specially on a consistent basis) is physically tiring, but one will not remember the exhaustion that he or she has felt in those trips. The memories it created, the joy it brought, and the experiences it gave are the things that will remain. In a world where I thought that just being part of the game is fun, the travelling along with it is definitely one of the “wait-til-you-see-this” moment.

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