Sports Weekly Magazine
March 30-April 6, 1979
On the Line, Vic Villafranca
It takes all kinds of forecasters and forecast and here, for whatever they are worth, whether you believe in tea leaves or tarot cards, in JQ or Madam Auring Erfelo, mumbo jumbo or kung fu, are some of them.
Back in his old familiar role as the most strident defender of the faith that holds Crispa, Joe (Papa Crispa) Quirino was regaling the host and visitors at last week’s “Taray ti Amianan” press conference about his belief that this time around, the Redmanizers, despite a title drought last year, are going to eat everybody alive in the 1979 PBA All-Filipino.
“Siguradong sigurado ang Crispa,” said Joe without waiting for somebody to pass the mike to him, “walang katalu-talo in the All Filipino.”
Then JQ, whose near defection to the Toyota camp three weeks now appears to be part of his “kahapon lamang,” went on to explain the reason for his bold forecast of a Crispa win despite the fact that last year, the Redmanizers kept running against a swinging door in their three ties for a PBA title.
“Wala nang sentimyento ang mga bata,” said Joe, taking it away – the mike from a Toyota fan who was trying to grab it away from him. “Binigay nang lahat ni Danny ang gusto nila.”
“So now everybody is happy as you might have noted if you have caught the Redmanizers on my show two Sundays ago on Seeing Stars on Channel 13, 8:30PM to 10:30.”
But what about the Toyota Tamaraws who, after all, are the defending champs?
“Wala na,” he rasped, “tapos na ang Toyota. Without Sonny Jaworski, saan sila pupulutin?”
This observation naturally sparked a lot of eyebrows and spilled so many cups of coffee because in so far as everybody can remember, the Big J remains very much part of the Toyota team.
JQ, however, had an explanation for his outright elimination of Jaworski from the Toyota lineup. “With what Jaworski is doing these days,” JQ said, “he may as well kiss his old role as Toyota’s take-charge man goodbye.”
And what is Jaworski doing these days, asked the boys from the PBA press box, their pencils in mid-air; their feet on the starting block.
“Making movies, among other things,” says Joe. “And also, he has this TV show, this printing press and tell me, how can you appear on TV, in the movies and in the printing press without somehow suffering a letdown in your performance?”
But Joe, one of the boys pointed out, you have two TV shows and a daily column to boot and kin so far as we know, you remain your old sparkling, dazzling self in front of the cameras.
“Thank you,” said JQ, trying to bow from the waist but failing, “that’s very kind of you. But I don’t have to win a championship for Dante Silverio.”
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For his part, Dick Ildefonso, one of the country’s most astute basketball observers, says that although he belongs to another TV channel, he feels he has to go along with JQ.
“Crispa’s All-Filipino lineup remains the most potent in the league,” said Dick without looking around and worrying about Emy Arcilla. “If Crispa plays as it should play, no team can beat it…no team.”
Not even Toyota?
Instead of coming out with a forthright reply, however, Dick merely looked at his salad. Which probably means that either Dick doesn’t think Toyota without Danny Florencio stands a chance against Crispa or he felt it was time he attended to his salad before the waiter, that’s right, the waiter, and not JQ, “teks it away.”
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The way this corner views the possible shape of things to come in the PBA pennant picture, it really looks like Crispa, more than any other team in this year’s All-Filipino, will figure prominently in the final frame.
All because more than defending champion Toyota, pennant-hungry Tanduay, team-to-watch Royal Tru Orange and unpredictable U/Tex, Crispa has the most loaded combination in the league as well as the deepest bench.
And since this year, the Redmanizers are in the uncharacteristic position of outsiders looking in, a ballclub starved for a pennant, they may be expected to play every game of theirs in the series as if it was championship night and as if on the sidelines, Danny Floro has put the Crispa industrial empire on the block.
Toyota, of course, remains the big threat to Crispa’s comeback campaign, but Toytoa’s title retention drive hinges on how well a Tamaraw lineup with a scaled-down firepower can match Crsipa’s high-caliber scoring sock.
As for Tanduay, it ought to be a cinch for the semis, and probably Royal Tru Orange, but not the Wranglers who, without Boy Kutch, look like a howitzer that had been stripped off its firing pin. Like a concert pianist too, with both arms in a cast.
So Crispa it is which is this corner’s pick to win the All-Filipino, not only because of what JQ said, but despite it. Not because without Florencio, Toyota is a firecracker without a fuse but just the single fact that when they are lean and hungry and embarrassed as they are this season, the Redmanizers claw and bite back like a king stripped of his crown, a cowboy robbed of his horse or a JQ separated from his mike.
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Here’s a comforting bit of news from basketball fans who’ll be following the new PBA series on the boob tube. Dick Ildefonso will again anchor Channel 4’s coverage of the league with laughs – as usual – being supplied by you know who.
The only twist in the TV coverage of the PBA games this season is that unlike last year, the Channel 4 sportscasting team won’t have a sit-down “analyst.” But every now and then, says Jun Hizon, they’ll have an expert to sit alongside Dick. And by expert, he probably means somebody who won’t make a lot of grammar school teachers all over the country cry over their dictionaries.
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Elsewhere in sports ----
It has turned out the reason a golf impresario in the south dispensed with the services of a golf promoter was that the promoter was asking for something in the neighborhood of Php 80,000 for the simple task of putting out press releases, posters and passing out envelopes…The problem with telecasting a golf match is that no matter how hard the sportscaster tries, he almost always sounds like somebody describing a necrological service…With what PBA President Doming Itchon said about the BAP’s Lito Puyat last Tuesday, party-goers are advised not to assign the two gentlemen in the same dinner table.
