As men’s team falters, Blu Girls prove they are without peers in SEA

The Blu Girls remain the gold standard in the Asean region. –MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

NEW CLARK CITY—The Philippine softball teams, which go by the name of the Blu Boys and Blu Girls, were in the spotlight on Sunday—but for different reasons.

The unbeatable Blu Girls crowned themselves queens of the Southeast Asian Games for the 10th straight time. Nothing new there.
But the Blu Boys, heavily favored for a gold medal before all of this started, took a beating from Singapore flush on the chin and just for the second time in a storied participation in the Games, went home with a medal not of the golden type.Scoring an 8-0 rout of Indonesia on Sunday, the Blu Girls haven’t let anyone even come near them the entire time, making manager Randy Dizer say that “this is the easiest (SEA Games) gold” that they won.

“And it’s also the sweetest” since it was played in front of a hometown crowd.

Dizer then came back to face reporters after the Blu Boys lost, 6-1, to Singapore for the men’s gold, with Dizer calling it how it should and offering no excuses: “We were out-hit,” he said.

If there was an upset to be considered—much in the way when Thailand was unseated by a gritty Philippine Six in men’s volleyball Sunday night—then this one is it as the Singaporeans have shown that they have caught up—and even surpassed the former kings of softball in the region—and that something needs to be done for the Philippines to regain its lofty ranking.

The Blu Boys lost for the second time since bowing to Indonesia in the 1997 finale, with the first of those two defeats also coming at the hands of Singapore, 4-3, in the semifinals, the team it blanked, 8-0, in the group clash.

What’s also apparent is that the Blu Girls need no fixing at all, after the squad steamrolled the opposition to remain undefeated in the Games in that 10-gold run.

Odd moniker

But just how did they earn such catchy, albeit oddly spelled, monikers nobody could explain.

“The people who know that are all dead by now,” said Chito Gonzales of Little League Philippines, the grassroots unit of the national squads.
Gonzales said the monikers probably were coined by the late Rizal Gov. Isidro Rodriguez, who is considered the “father of Philippine softball.”
Softball head coach Randy Dizer said that back in the ’70s—considered the golden age of softball—Rodriguez would house the entire teams at Marikina Sports Complex.

“He is the patron of the sport, he took special care of the softball teams,” added Dizer of Rodriguez, who has been inducted to the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame.

The Philippines women’s team has won all 10 times the sport was played in the SEA Games, while the men’s squad won eight—losing only in 1997 and this year. INQ