IF YOU want your Sunday today to be a real Sunday treat, go watch the final day of the World Women's Volleyball Grand Prix at the PhilSports Arena (formerly Ultra) in Pasig City. You will not regret having gone there.
The games can be had for a bargain.
From the kid to grandpa and grandma, the matches are a delight to watch. Last Friday evening alone, I got so carried away watching the thrilling Brazil-Italy game that I forgot I was standing up already, stabbing the air with my right fist at every spike that Leila Barros of Brazil delivered or every toss that Maurizzia Cacciatori dished out to her Italian teammates. I didn't know that a little birdie of a grandma was seated behind me. I was blocking her view. Imagine my embarrassment when her son tapped me from behind, calling my attention to the crime I had committed to his dear grandma.
My, my. How inconsiderate of me.
Today's twinbill should be another blockbuster--Italy versus Korea at 2:30 p.m. and Cuba versus Brazil at 4:30 p.m. The matches are crucial as the results would either make or unmake a team in the series that would pick the eventual overall Grand Prix champion after the finals set in China days from now.
Volleyball, indeed, is very much alive in this land of basketball-crazy inhabitants.
A roaring crowd. Fans from virtually all walks of life trooping to the PhilSports Arena in droves. Autograph-seeking spectators trying to mob the players after the games. These are but some of the manifestations that the game of volleyball isn't Greek to us.
Seemingly, our volleyball crowd is very much like China in the '70s: A sleeping tiger.
Seemingly, the ongoing Volleyball Grand Prix has awoken the sleeping tiger in our sports fans.
Even San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada, Erap's son, came to watch the matches Friday, not simply because he is chair of the Grand Prix Organizing Committee but also because he is a self-proclaimed ''man for all sports.'' Volleyball bigwig Benny Gopez, the brains behind the coming here of this world-class event, said he couldn't find enough words to express his gratitude to Jinggoy's support for the tournament.
I have always believed that volleyball, a thrilling game of spurts and speed, is well-loved by Filipinos. In many barrios of my hometown of Mangatarem in Pangasinan, volleyball games are held almost every weekend. In Barangay Bogtong Silag alone, Julian Apostol's land of birth, friendly bets from virtually one house to another are poured into each game held on Saturdays.
Long after the Volleyball Grand Prix is over, people who have seen it will continue talking about it.
Surely, it'd be a delight--like an affair to remember--if
you counted yourself as among those who had seen it.
Adapted from The Philippine Daily Inquirer Interactive,
August 22, 1999
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