“A Shameless Tendency”
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 16 Dec 2009
Efren Reyes.
There are a handful of Filipinos who have this shameless tendency to pounce on athletes who lose and compound the felony by claiming that prize money or gambling was the cause of the loss.
The latest to suffer from this despicable trait have been Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, two legitimate pool legends who suffered a stunning setback in the opening game of the Southeast Asian Games doubles competition to a Thai tandem.
In fact, colleague Recah Trinidad says that Bustamante had wanted to cry over the loss but more so over the vicious insinuations about their defeat.
It was only last September that we hailed Efren and Django for their singular feat of winning the World Pool Cup for the second time, having won the inaugural staging of the event against the mighty US pair of Earl “The Pearl” Strickland and Rodney “The Rocket” Morris in 2006.
Last week Reyes teamed up with Rubilen Amit to win the inaugural staging of the World Mixed Doubles Classic at Nuvo City, going unscathed through the tournament. The money was not big. It was a mere $6,000 to be divided equally between the two. That’s less than P150,000 each. In fact, if they had won gold in Laos the incentive was P300,000 which amounted to the same thing. So where is the difference?
Besides, to put it bluntly, who the hell in Laos bets on pool? If it was football we could understand. But pool – they hardly know the game and who, in h is right mind, unless he was an inveterate gambler, would bet against Efren and Django.
Perhaps this provides a clue to the hate campaign of a few Filipinos. Maybe they bet on the Filipino tandem and lost and are trying to vent the ire of their losses on our two greatest pool players of all time.
The sickness of their minds stands out in stark contrast to the glorious achievements of Reyes and Bustamante through the years. They have won every conceivable trophy in international pool and have given millions of Filipinos so much to cheer about. The number of fans who crowded around Reyes even after they lost spoke eloquently of their respect and admiration for our pool heroes.
Whenever Reyes and Bustamante play abroad, flag-waving Filipino overseas workers travel from all over the country where they work not just to cheer them on but to bring them Filipino food and delicacies and to make them feel at home. That’s an example for the whiners and the evil-minded to remember if not try to emulate . Reyes and Bustamante are among our genuine sports heroes. They should be comforted in their loss, not castigated.
We shudder to think of how this small mob would react should our biggest hero and living boxing legend Manny Pacquiao lose a fight. Would they dare accuse him of throwing a fight away? Such individuals deserve one thing – a left hook such as the one Pacquiao threw against Ricky Hatton and separated him from his senses. This time, hopefully, such a punch would restore the senses of a shameless few or shut their filthy mouths once and for all.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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