IT’S POSSIBLE that Arwind Santos’ third eye may have been inadvertently opened by Calvin Abueva’s elbow in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven championship series at Smart Araneta Coliseum last Friday night.
“The Beast’s” wayward elbow opened a cut above the middle of Santos’ eyebrows, the supposed location of the mythical third eye.
The bleeding was not profuse and the injury didn’t really hurt that much, according to Santos, the best player of Game 2. Nonetheless, he was brought to Medical City for emergency treatment.
“Three stitches were needed to close the wound. I hardly felt the sting of the needle. I didn’t even feel pain when I was hit. We won, didn’t we? What would have really, really hurt is if we lost the game,” Arwind said.
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The moon wasn’t full during Game 2 but the Beast seemed to be on a wild rampage that Friday night.
He ran roughshod over anybody that got in his way, starting with Chris Ross, whom he bumped in the first quarter. For this, he got a technical.
There was also an incident between David Semerad and Dondon Hontiveros, where he almost joined the fray. Even the big and mighty June Mar Fajardo was not spared.
“In the heat of the game, I saw Calvin hit June Mar in the back. I saw it with my own two eyes,” Arwind said.
Curiously, Arwind would not tag Abueva as a dirty player.
“Makulit (pesky) lang. He’s so pesky he’s likely to get your goat.”
The Beast did not succeed in opening Arwind’s third eye (it got sewn up again), where he could have been introduced to a strange new dimension of existence.
Instead, Arwind was summoned to the PBA commissioner’s office at 2 p.m. today along with Abueva, Semerad, Vic Manuel, Ronald Tubid, Hontiveros, Louie Alas and a San Miguel ball boy, according to a text notice sent by PBA media bureau head Willie Marcial yesterday.
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No wonder beauty queen Mary Jean “MJ” Lastimosa has been missing from the PBA games for some time now. She has been very busy preparing for the Miss Universe pageant, which will be staged in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 25.
I tried to get in touch with Charlie Dy, manager of cager Alex Mallari, to find out if he is attending the pageant, since the PBA will be on its break at that time, but I couldn’t get through to him.
Incidentally, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has been selected as one of the judges of the pageant.