Fair Play: Grouching Tiger, Miserable Dragons
UNDER the category for “blowouts,” in Wikipedia are interesting facts concerning some of the worst routs in sports history.
Perhaps, one day, an enterprising soul will include the circumstances of Cebu Eastern College Dragons’s twin routs to the University of Cebu (131 points) and the University of the Visayas (155) in their first two games of the Cesafi in that entry.
Among those cited in that Wikipedia page are:
Just this January, a coach of a girls’ high school basketball team in Dallas was fired after his team won, 100-0.
The reason? They were playing an eight-girl team from a school of TWENTY students with learning disabilities.
The sacked coach defended his actions and said that was how basketball was supposed to be played.
And in 1885, Abroath defeated Bon Accord in the Scottish Cup, 36-0, (which is like losing by 150 in basketball), because organizers somehow invited a team of cricket players to a football match.
Now CEC is a school with rich tradition and I’m sure, also, the Cesafi hasn’t somehow mistaken their debate team for their basketball team, but the Dragons’s current plight raises the same question as that of the losing girls’ basketball team and the accidental football squad.
What are they doing on the same court with those teams in the first place?
One CEC supporter said she lauds the players for, “Their hearts were brave enough to fight even if they knew they had a slim chance of getting final scores at least even half of the scores of their opponents. They joined not to win, not even to lose, but in the name of camaraderie and sportsmanship, which they did not fail (to show).”
Right now, CEC is between a very hard place and an even harder place, sportsmanship and camaraderie be damned.
It’s pointless to question the wisdom—or lack of it—behind their participation in Cesafi basketball.
They can’t quit playing because they will face sanctions, aside from getting the stigma as quitters.
And when they play, they get their breakfast, lunch and dinner (not the lavish kind) handed to them every other ball possession. And setting a new record for futility seems to be their past time.
They still have five games left, against schools just as eager to drop triple digits against them.
All they can hope now is not lose by a hundred and nobody chronicles their misery in that online encyclopedia for all the world to know.
The CEC supporter also wrote that the team’s old coach, abandoned the team, just four days before the Cesafi.
I hope nobody hires that quitter again.
GROUCHO TIGER. Tiger Woods just won the Bridgestone Invitational—his 70th title—after trailing by three going into the final round.
But he wasn’t too pleased. He and erstwhile leader Padraig Harrington were put on the clock for slow play in the 16th, that pivotal hole where Woods took the lead.
Ever the competitive guy, Woods said he wasn’t pleased the rules man got in the way of a great battle, earning the headline “Grouching Tiger,” from one website.
The PGA also wasn’t pleased with Woods and fined golf’s greatest draw. Maybe next time, Tiger will shut up.
SCHUMI’S NECK. Like millions of F1 fans all over the world, I was disappointed by Michael Schumacher’s foiled comeback.
It’s too bad the injury he got in an accident on two wheels six months ago, spoiled one of this year’s greatest sports stories.
I’m still holding out hope though, that Schumi gets to ride again this year, even for just one race.
That would make the Singapore Grand Prix a so appealing event to visit.
Perhaps, one day, an enterprising soul will include the circumstances of Cebu Eastern College Dragons’s twin routs to the University of Cebu (131 points) and the University of the Visayas (155) in their first two games of the Cesafi in that entry.
Among those cited in that Wikipedia page are:
Just this January, a coach of a girls’ high school basketball team in Dallas was fired after his team won, 100-0.
The reason? They were playing an eight-girl team from a school of TWENTY students with learning disabilities.
The sacked coach defended his actions and said that was how basketball was supposed to be played.
And in 1885, Abroath defeated Bon Accord in the Scottish Cup, 36-0, (which is like losing by 150 in basketball), because organizers somehow invited a team of cricket players to a football match.
Now CEC is a school with rich tradition and I’m sure, also, the Cesafi hasn’t somehow mistaken their debate team for their basketball team, but the Dragons’s current plight raises the same question as that of the losing girls’ basketball team and the accidental football squad.
What are they doing on the same court with those teams in the first place?
One CEC supporter said she lauds the players for, “Their hearts were brave enough to fight even if they knew they had a slim chance of getting final scores at least even half of the scores of their opponents. They joined not to win, not even to lose, but in the name of camaraderie and sportsmanship, which they did not fail (to show).”
Right now, CEC is between a very hard place and an even harder place, sportsmanship and camaraderie be damned.
It’s pointless to question the wisdom—or lack of it—behind their participation in Cesafi basketball.
They can’t quit playing because they will face sanctions, aside from getting the stigma as quitters.
And when they play, they get their breakfast, lunch and dinner (not the lavish kind) handed to them every other ball possession. And setting a new record for futility seems to be their past time.
They still have five games left, against schools just as eager to drop triple digits against them.
All they can hope now is not lose by a hundred and nobody chronicles their misery in that online encyclopedia for all the world to know.
The CEC supporter also wrote that the team’s old coach, abandoned the team, just four days before the Cesafi.
I hope nobody hires that quitter again.
GROUCHO TIGER. Tiger Woods just won the Bridgestone Invitational—his 70th title—after trailing by three going into the final round.
But he wasn’t too pleased. He and erstwhile leader Padraig Harrington were put on the clock for slow play in the 16th, that pivotal hole where Woods took the lead.
Ever the competitive guy, Woods said he wasn’t pleased the rules man got in the way of a great battle, earning the headline “Grouching Tiger,” from one website.
The PGA also wasn’t pleased with Woods and fined golf’s greatest draw. Maybe next time, Tiger will shut up.
SCHUMI’S NECK. Like millions of F1 fans all over the world, I was disappointed by Michael Schumacher’s foiled comeback.
It’s too bad the injury he got in an accident on two wheels six months ago, spoiled one of this year’s greatest sports stories.
I’m still holding out hope though, that Schumi gets to ride again this year, even for just one race.
That would make the Singapore Grand Prix a so appealing event to visit.
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