Top 10 "Top 10s": Best Monickers

     I love monickers.  In fact, I wrote about my favorites before in a previous article.  I think they give sports a lot more color and they give athletes a chance at better name recognition, which is always helpful in making a certain sport more popular.  


Parameters: As usual, only athletes playing in the sports that From the Fifty Peso Seats covers will be counted.  Also, given my preference for MMA monickers, I decided to control myself by limiting it to three per sport at the most.  Also, as tribute to my brod Tibibord, I would like to give special mention to "El Aparador" Joel Dualan.  Great monicker, but it did little to extend his PBA career.  I heard he's coaching though.


10.  Marcus Davis (UFC)

     One of the better fighters in the UFC's middleweight division, I have to admit that I barely knew of Davis a few years ago.  That all changed when I witnessed one of his fights.  It wasn't his fighting style that really got me.  It was his monicker.  "The Irish Hand Grenade," is just freakin' awesome, isn't it?  Of course, he would've ranked higher had his monicker not have been too controversial to use in Ireland.  he ended up being called, "The Celtic Warrior," there, since Ireland continues to experience unrest.

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Heartbreak Hotel

     In the sports entertainment world of professional wrestling, hyperboles are thrown around like rice in a wedding procession.  There are, however, a few great men and women, who have earned each and every single one of those hyperboles.  One of those great ones, bade a final goodbye to his adoring fans of over 25 years.  Shawn Michaels, the "Heartbreak Kid," finally bade good bye to the WWE Universe last Monday, ending the career of easily one of wrestling's most popular and enduring superstars.  As a tribute to one of wrestlings icons, I look back on HBK's most memorable career moments.  While HBK has won a tremendous amount of titles, including every single one the WWE has ever had, I find these moments were his greatest.

Kwentong Barbero


     In 1988, a then teenaged Shawn Michaels burst into the WWE scene as one half of the Rockers. Teamed with Marty Jannetty, Michaels wuickly busted through the tag team ranks, winning against greats like the Hart Foundation and the Brain Busters.  His road to greatness, however, started with the implosion of his tag team.  After a series of rumors surrounding the Rockers' partnership, Michaels cleared the air in Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake's barber shop, raising Jannetty's hand before turning around and super-kicking him in the face.  The separation from Jannetty allowed Michael's to pursue the tremendous singles career everyone will remember for quite some time.

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Shorts: Signs of the Apocalypse

(Each week, From the Fifty Peso Seats has a weekly edition of shorts, compilations of interesting but short posts of developments and trivia about the sporting world.)


     When weird, unexpected things begin to happen, you can't help but think about that blasted Mayan prediction that the world will end on 2012.  If the sports world were any gauge, that prediction may indeed come to life.


Pains

     In the course of any NBA season, players from all teams will be affected by injuries, but this season seems to have taken quite a turn. Various superstars, ranging from game changers (Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd, TIm Duncan) to Potential Stars (Greg Oden, Blake Griffin) have all logged time in the hurt locker.  Furthermore, some teams, like the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors had as many as six players injured at a time, causing them to almost default in games. If that may not be weird enough for some, get this.  This season, no fewer than three head coaches have missed games due to illness and injury as well!  Warriors coach Don Nelson let assistant Keith Smart take over several games as he recuperated from heart problems.  Meanwhile, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy  joined his son in sick bay as he missed two games due to an illness as well.  Blazers coach Nate Mcmillan really took the cake (and looking at his growing waistline maybe ate it too) as he tore his achilles tendon, ironically while filling in for one of his injured players during practice!  Injuries may be a part of every season, but when coaches start dropping, isn't that an eyebrow raising situation?  Hey, I coached in our alumni basketball league.  Should I be worried?


Too Good?


     As of January 14, 2010, all the Filipino athletes who medalled in the 2009 Laos South East Asian Games received their full (and increased) monetary incentives from the government. Then, the Philippines Sports Commission also announced their plan of building a mall at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC), where its profits will be used to fund the athletes' training and tournaments.  The RMSC has free space as the PSC successfully (finally!) evicted the girlie bars along Adriatico St. which were distractions to both our athletes and coaches, as they "enjoyed" the bars' different "attractions."  Furthermore, the PSC announced that they have already raised PhP 16 million for the athletes' training fund in the run up to the 2010 Asian Games.  Now, all the above mentioned developments are positive developments, which should bring warmth to our hearts, but when I think about it, when has the PSC worked this well and efficient this early?  Now, thinking about how well we have it this early in the year, I shudder.  Is this really the start of good things for our sports program, or is this the proverbial "last meal" before the world goes kaput in 2012?


Peace-Fool?

     Over 12 years ago, Bret "Hitman" Hart was all set to leave the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) but he refused to lose his last match, thereby making it difficult to turnover his WWE Championship belt.  Owner Vince McMahon then cooked up a scheme that had Shawn Michaels win the belt with a questionable referee's decision.  The infamous "Montreal Screw Job" saw a frustrated Hart actually spit a loogie at his boss and leave the company in an ungracious manner.  Many thought that the screw job caused an irreparable split between the "Excellence of Execution" and McMahon, but just over a week ago, Hart reappeared on Raw as guest host, burying the hatchet with Michaels and then McMahon.  Furthermore, McMahon offered to nominate Hart's father Stu into the WWE Hall of Fame.  In fact, the two apparently made up well enough that in the last segment of the show, McMahon "kicked" Hart in a clearly scripted segment.  Now, there's talks that Bret might reappear on the show again.  While wrestling fans celebrated the moment, one has to take a moment to take stock of what happened.  To quote Bret's first line upon entering the WWE ring for the first time in over a decade, "Well, hell has frozen over."


photos courtesy of brethart.com, bbs.hoopchina.com and slamonline.com

Breaking (Well-Conditioned) Hearts

     In my recent bowling league night, I bowled a total of thirteen consecutive strikes, and while only twelve is needed to bowl a perfect game, I didn't get one because my 13 strikes were split between two games.  I bowled 7 to finish the first game and 6 to start the second.  To make matters worse, I missed the cash prize given for games over 255 because neither of my games were over 255 (242 and 253)! What a heartbreaker!  

     My own heartbreak got me thinking about sport's biggest heartbreaks.  Here are some that I find to be history's biggest heartbreakers and heartbreaks.

Heartbreaker: Steffi Graf

Victims: Jana Novotna and Martina Hingis

     Both Novotna and Hingis, chasing the prestigious French Open Championships, both played tremendous first sets and second sets to bring their finals match to match point.  Graf, however, refused to wilt under the pressure and displayed the fiery form that won her 22 Grand Slam titles.  In both instances, Graf escaped the second set, and then thoroughly dominated the third set, much to the delight of the crowd and the chagrin of the other finalist.  While Novotna and Hingis both retired with their respectve Grand Slam Titles, I'm betting neither will ever forget how Mrs. Andre Agassi broke their hearts.

Heartbreaker: Los Angeles Lakers

Victims: Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings

     On their way to three NBA Championships and numerous trips to the NBA finals, the Los Angeles Lakers, led by the trio of Phil Jackson, Shaq O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, made sure they broke several hearts along the way.  The first to experience the pain would be the Blazers of the 2000 season.  Leading big in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, it would seem the Rasheed Wallace-Steve Smith led Blazers would get to taste the NBA Finals.  Unfortunately, the ultra-talented squad, which also featured Bonzi Wells and Arvydas Sabonis, went through an inexplicable dry spell in the last four minutes of the game.  This paved the way for a historic comeback by the Lakers, including a tremendous ally-oop from Kobe to Shaq.  That loss turned out to be last hurrah for the Blazers as that same talented team soon began to implode.  In the coming years, that team became known as the Jail Blazers and soon after that, Portland missed the playoffs for the first time in over two decades.

     The Sacramento Kings were also a talented bunch who fell victim to the Lakers date with Destiny.  The Kings, led by Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, looked to have the Lakers number and needed Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals to take the Lakers to the brink.  However, a broken play by the Lakers resulted in a bad shot, a ball tapped to the outside and alas, that dagger three by Robert Horry.  The Kings and their fans never lived that shot down and never really challenged for the title again. 

Heartbreaker: Shawn Michaels

Victims: All wrestling fans in the universe

     It is only fitting that the Heartbreak Kid would be in this list.  While wrestling is entirely scripted, it doesn't mean the fans won't have their hearts broken.  When Nature Boy Ric Flair, a former 16-time World Champion, was punished by Vince McMahon, he couldn't afford to lose a match, lest he be banished to retirement.  Despite this, the Nature Boy still yearned to battle the best, who at that time, he deemed to be Michaels.  So in Wrestlemania 24, Flair fought tooth and nail against the younger Michaels, almost to a tie, until Michaels finished him off with a super kick to the face.  While almost everyone expected the WWE Hall of Famer Flair to lose and retire, his loss that night still triggered tears to fall from the thousands in attendance, including the victor, Michaels.

Heartbreaker: Bal David

Victims: San Miguel Beermen

     Despite a depleted line up propped up only by import Jeff Ward and Nelson Asaytono, the San Miguel Beermen still managed to put up a tremendous fight against sister team, the Gordon's Gin Boars (Ginebra).  The two teams engaged in a fierce semi-finals knockout match, which even went into overtime.  With the Beermen in the lead with just seconds to go and the Boars having no timeouts, it seemed the underdogs were about to steal it.  The Flash, Bal David, however, threw up a seemingly-impossible half court shot that drilled a dagger into many a beermen fan's heart.  While San Miguel and Jeff Ward would be reunited for another go the following year, they never did win a championship together.

     Do you know any heartbreakers more gut wrenching than these? Comment or send me an email at plated_thrills@yahoo.com