Baseball not an option for Pacquiao

SACRAMENTO, California—The exodus from Reno, Nevada of vacationers and weekenders started Monday, Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer in America. My wife and I were part of the midday rush.

As we drove down Interstate 80, Lily observed that maple, bald cypress and aspen leaves are slowly putting on a patina of fall hues—yellow, orange brown and red.

The collective hope in California is that the state’s long dry spell would give way to a wet autumn and winter.

There is no drought when it comes to the news as reality slowly sank in for countless commuters, including Filipino Americans traveling on I-80 while temperatures sizzled in the high 90s.

For many of the motorists, the future includes returning to work yesterday  after the Labor Day holiday.

Among other headlines, the news back home included the rental housing issue and the growing number of evictions in the Bay Area, and the proposed ban on plastic bags statewide that continues to pose peril for both incumbents and candidates seeking political office.

Meanwhile, the arrest of San Francisco 49er defensive end Ray MacDonald for felony domestic violence dominated the sports scene in Northern California.

But for Filipino-Americans, the sporting news that’s worth huddling around the water fountain for involved the struggling Tim Lincecum.  The part-Filipino hurler has been asked by his manager Bruce Botchy to skip another turn at the pitching rotation for the SF Giants.

Also grabbing attention was the first win of the Smart Gilas team over Senegal at the Fiba World Cup, with local boy Jimmy Alapag one of the vital cogs in the historic game, and the visit of Manny Pacquiao at AT&T Park last Friday to promote his forthcoming fight with undefeated Chris Algieri.

Video grabs on the web showed that while media cameras clicked and whirred, the eight-division boxing world champ struggled to hit baseballs during batting practice before the Giants game against Milwaukee.

Pacquiao was the 10th overall pick in the recent 2014 PBA rookie draft, with KIA Motors choosing its own coach.

A plan hatched beforehand called for the fighting congressman from Sarangani to serve as KIA’s player-coach, but he had to go through the draft in order to make that happen.

What’s clear after Pacquiao’s performance in the Giants cage was that there’s no reason for the multitasker to leave professional boxing and basketball in favor of pro baseball any time soon.

Pacman, the WBO welterweight champion (56-5-2, 38 KOs) and his challenger (20-0-0, 8 KOs) dropped by San Francisco to help promote their bout in China on Nov. 23.

Like his first headliner last year in Macau where he defeated Mexican-American Brandon Rios, Pacquiao’s encounter with Algieri is not expected to notch great numbers on pay-per-view.

That’s because at the end of the day, no one thinks that the likeable Algieri has fought against elite boxers.

The consensus among boxing aficionados is that Algieri, the newly  crowned WBO junior welterweight champion is not considered a serious threat and has not really earned the right to face one of boxing’s biggest marquee names.