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

Better Than Streaky Bacon

     For sports junkies, few things make sports more exciting than streaks.  To do a great thing is impressive, but to do a great thing multiple times and to do consecutively at regular intervals?  That deserves lots of recognition.  The world of sports has provided us with some truly lip-smacking streaks, two of which were just achieved recently.

Fed Up

Aside from being called the greatest tennis player of all time, Roger Federer has won an unprecedented 15 Grand Slam titles, including impressive streaks at Wimbledon and US Open titles. This past week, though, Fed continued with his streak that I personally love.  As of today, the Swiss hotshot has a streak of 22 consecutive Grand Slam Semi-Finals appearances.  While for some being a semi-finalist is less impressive than being champion, being a semi-finalist for 22 straight times means that Federer has been one of the best in each of the four Grand Slams for over five consecutive years! Still not impressed? Consider this. The closest streak rivaling Federer's?  Ivan Lendle's streak stands at 10.

One-Named Wonder

     Baseball has several impressive streaks and this past week, one was established by a player so good people call him by only his first name.  Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki now holds the MLB record for consecutive 200-hit seasons after his infield single against the Texas Rangers this past week.  Ichiro now has 200 hits for nine consecutive seasons and he isn't even close to retiring yet.  How impressive is this achievement?  He broke "Wee" Willie Keeler's record of eight consecutive seasons, which stood for over a century!  Yes folks.  Keeler achieved his record from 1894-1901.  That was even before the World Wars!

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