Observations from a far place.

jay helfert · 2009-05-29T03:08:10+00:00

I arrived in the Philippines two days ago. When you first get off the plane and enter the airport, there is a distinct aroma that the Philippines has. If you've ever been here, you know of what I speak. After one day you become used to it and forget about it. But it's here, 24 hours a day, everywhere you go in Manila. The sights and sounds of metro Manila are overwhelming for the senses. Standing on any busy street corner, your brain is invaded with a cacaphony of sounds. Whoever first wrote of the teeming masses, must have been talking about Manila. The flow of people in all directions, mixed in with honking cars, screaming children, ear screeching buses and thundering trucks. There is no safe place to stand, one can only attempt to stay out of the way. I am in an internet shop now. The place is packed with kids playing games and yelling in Tagolog. The rock music is set at about 110 decibels. That's after I asked him to turn it down. I went to the Philippine Ten Ball yesterday. They have set up a very nice venue in one of Manila's maga Malls. In fact this one is called The Mega Mall. There is also the Mall of Asia, The Super Mall and various other SM giant malls. All of them larger and infinitely more crowded than any mall in America. Most of these giant malls are owned by the Sy family, who happen to be supporters of professional pool. They are great venues for the promotion of major pool events over here. In fact next weeks Women's Ten Ball Championship is in yet another huge mall right across the road. All of these malls have large exhibition halls! Makes a lot more sense then paying big bucks to rent the PICC or Araneta Colisium. I can relate to what Makabenta has gone through to put this event together. A lot of work went into the planning and preparations for it. And it looks good, with nice posters, a spacious arena with lots of good seats and a stellar field of players. The field is much like last year's World Ten Ball, with players from all over and a host of filipino's, with most of the champions left out. I won't go into the politics here. Suffice to say, that the big names from filipino pool are not in attendance. That is not to say that players like Manalo, Gabica and De Luna aren't excellent players. They are. There is live television daily via ESPN Star Asia and ABS-CBN (filipino TV). Once again, 4-6 hours a day of live pool. It's all full length matches, so unlike the dated and edited stuff we are fed by ESPN in the states. Manalo played an excellent match with a young Indonesian player (Susante) and fell 9-7. They both played some very good pool. Jasmin went hill-hill with Ernesto Dominguez. She made a tough run out to get to the Ten Ball for the match. She came up short on the 50 yard line, between the side pocket and the corner. Jasmin took her time and got down, looking solid. I was in the front row, ten feet away. At the moment she took her final back swing, a cell phone went off loudly right next to me. She totally jerked on the shot and missed it badly. There are signs posted everywhere and announcements made about cell phones, but no matter. Some IDIOT cost her the match! Jasmin has too much class to even react. After the miss she said nothing, just went and sat down. When Ernesto made the easy ten ball, she got up and shook his hand. What a classy player she is. Not one gripe or show of bitterness. I'm off to the venue again today.