Pride in Sports Media

Being here in the US after one year makes me miss the old grind of being a sportswriter back in Manila.

As I posted before, I had no choice because my mother wanted me to stay in California for good as she is not in good terms anymore with my uncles and aunts back home.

One time while my mom and I were clearing out some old things owned by my late stepfather here in our California home, I saw an old clipping of an article that came from the defunct magazine Scoreboard written by Bill Velasco where my name was mentioned.

At that time, Bill was a columnist for Scoreboard and I was in my last year in college at the University of Santo Tomas. Bill was also active in the PBA as a producer and anchor for Vintage Sports, which covered the games at that time.

Here are excerpts:

"James is a bespectacled and (hopefully) graduating (journalism) student from the University of Santo Tomas. The sportswriting fraternity in general considers him a pest ... because of his persistent, no, make that consistent and insistent questioning. He's not abrasive, just inquisitive to a fault. And wanting to belong.

"Why is James Ty looking for answers in the real world? Because he can't get them in the classroom. Journalism is taught from experience and theory. We need to be reminded of why we chose our professions. You always hear the words 'dedication, perseverance, sacrifice.' They are are still very applicable in any trade. As long as you have a little pride in our profession."

Eventually, I joined Scoreboard in 1992 and spent eight years writing for the magazine. I really enjoyed it and I had a column myself until the mag folded up in 2000 when the publishers, Rex Printing, decided to concentrate on printing textbooks.

I remember that Bill was so handsome during his younger days that some of my female college classmates at UST told me that they had a crush on him.

I got the chance to meet Bill again when we worked together in the defunct sports website philsports.net, whose offices were based in Makati. I wrote PBA stories and features for the site before it folded up too soon. The site was put up sometime in 1999, and we know at that time, internet wasn't that popular. But at least, that site opened the door for a lot of sports websites now like Spin.ph.

It was also during my philsports.net stint that I got to work a lot with Atty. Ed Tolentino, the boxing analyst who was also my co-writer in Scoreboard. I remember the days when Ed and I would stay late nights at the office in Makati to finish our deadlines for the site while Bill was busy with his television commitments at that time. Ed and I would often end our nights eating hamburgers at the nearby Burger Machine stand along Pasong Tamo in Makati just near Makati Cinema Square and the Mile Long Building that was just recently seized by the Duterte government.

Now Bill is happily married and has two boys, one of whom is working with Solar Sports as a promising TV host. Bill himself writes a twice a week column for the Philippine Star and hosts Hardball Monday nights on ANC. He just recently produced the documentary movie "PBA: A Nation's Passion" and did some TV commentary for the Southeast Asian Games on PTV 4.

As for Atty. Ed, he is still busy analyzing boxing bouts for TV and writes for Manila Times and Spin but he is more actively involved with his work with the Supreme Court because of his day job of being a lawyer.

Honestly, I do miss being in sports media. But someone who used to work for the PBA has connections here in California and pretty soon, I may go back to doing what I love. I'm hoping and praying for that opportunity.