Smart Gilas: Call a doctor very quick

Last April 30, a Saturday, the Illam (International Little League Association of Manila) won the right to represent the Philippines in the Asia-Pacific Regional Finals of the Junior Division (age 13-14) to be held in Solo, Indonesia, this month. In an abbreviated game of only five innings, the Illam teeners, a very prayerful and hard-working team, handily blanked the Marikina nine by a record-breaking score of 21-0.
Last year, playing in the Major Division (age 11-12), this team already demonstrated its prowess by placing runner-up, without its top pitcher, in the Asia-Pacific Regional held in Surabaya, Indonesia. This team, now playing in the Junior Division, is augmented by some who played in last year’s Junior Division and thus is a force to be reckoned with.  They are Boo Barandiaran, team captain and winning pitcher in that April 30 championship game, Joaquin Bilbao, the catcher, and Rafael Esguerra, the tallest and fastest, who is also into track and field.
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In addition to these three, one of the biggest assets is Miguel Habana, a known grand slammer, who has shown an ability to produce when needed. The top pitcher of last year’s team, Fonso Balagtas, is now the spring water of the team; Diego Lozano, an impeccable first baseman, who can likewise pitch, and Dan Laurel who hit four-for-four in the championship game.
Other equally capable players are Ignacio Escano, Iwasaki, Nacho Lozano, Josh Salinas, Tony Ozaeta, Lian Ramos, and Javie Macasaet.
A big credit goes to the coach, Randy Dizer. A strict disciplinarian and a serious taskmaster, he cajoles and scolds the boys, unmindful of the crowd or the fidgety parents around. But his soft side comes out when he spontaneously hugs a good batter, and when, after a game, he kneels down to lead the team in prayer.
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That neat foregoing report was sent in by Ramon A. Albert, and we decided to run it in full, not a word changed or deleted.
Our guest reporter, said to have a couple of grandsons in the team, swore the squad is “full of heart—we must give it the publicity it needs, in order that it may achieve honor for God and country.”
It’s already June, it was not mentioned whether the championship in Solo, Indonesia, would be held middle of this month or later.
But we’re waiting to be happily jolted with news of another good performance from these unheralded young achievers in baseball.
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Anyway, while waiting for the results of the baseball campaign, let me say that it’s not our patriotic duty to commend the overspending but underachieving Smart-Gilas national basketball team which finished out of the medal in the Fiba Asia Champions Cup.
For one, its coach Rajko Toroman criticized the team, first for lack of shooting basics and, lastly for its dumb, spiritless stand in its closing game for the bronze medal against Qatar on Sunday.
Without saying it, coach Toroman himself sounded sure it was about time the national team be reminded about its sickening mediocrity.
Toroman was the first one to decry the atrocious pointmaking, crying the team could not even shoot straight.
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Well, this is not to say Toroman is himself to blame.
But, based on the results of the Fiba Asia Champions Cup, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas should have taken in, together with the basketball professor in Toroman, a doctor.
Why? Because it has become clear now that Philippine basketball is not only inferior, it’s also quite sick.
Which brings us back to that offer by coach Rudy Hines of Crayden Sports, a non-profit organization dealing with innovative patterns of excellence in basketball, to help rehabilitate basketball in the Philippines.
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Extensive research done by Crayden Sports showed that young starters in the game end up with warped shooting tools, their young muscles damaged after being misguided by wrong starter techniques.
This was one reason, Hines et al. noted, that we’ve been unable to produce another pure shooter in the league like the legendary gunman Allan Caidic.
Crayden Sports, whose phone and address we had given to SBP executive director Sonny Barrios, doesn’t fancy itself as a doctor of the game.
But we’ve got to believe when it says that what Philippine basketball needs is an urgent cure to glaring ills.
Not expensive foreign professors, towering reinforcements, or hysterical blind rooters.