T
hree B’s have always lorded it over the local sports scene. Save the cult favorites sabong and horseracing for the old manongs—It’s the Big Three of basketball, boxing, and billiards. These three taken together amount to every street nook and cranny of this country turning into a sporting venue. Basketball is basketball. It is our national pride. What we lack in height, we make up for with puso, and now we’re knocking on the doors of hoops glory once again if our current lineup in the National Team makes it to the 2016 Olympics. Boxing is boxing because, well, we have Manny Pacquiao. His days as the best fighter of this generation will soon be over—and the ending is not as sweet as we would like it to be—but he will leave the arena assured of his place in the pantheon of boxing champions. Pinoy boxing will not die with him because somewhere right now, another kid is wearing his training gloves, dreaming to fight his way out of poverty, just like Manny. Billiards is…whatever the hell happened to billiards? Efren “Bata” Reyes used to be a sports/pop star. His international victories a decade or so back spawned countless pool halls across the country, sparking a new trend in weekend youth nights out. Now billiards has sort of lost its pop appeal, trudging back to its hustling roots. Efren Reyes’s days as king may now be over as he ages and his eyesight slowly fades. Now we’re left looking for a new star. The Filipino talent pool (pun intended) isn’t the problem. In fact, through the years, it has been nothing short of brimming. These days, kids as young as seven are taught how to wield cue sticks even as they learn the school basics. But at the end of the day, a lot of questions remain. How would these talented young guns break into the pro scene without the much-needed mileage? Will we ever see the heir to Efren? FHM delves into the current state of the billiards scene, from the varied perspectives of a sports pundit and an actual pool superstar, while examining how hard it is for the obscure but better local billiard players—let’s call them “lost souls”—to attain the level of success of their predecessors.
No spoNsors
“It’s not as vibrant as before, kasi we don’t have the big tournaments that we used to have,” admits sports journalist TJ Manotoc, Michael Baonan, 24, surveys the table intently before he takes his shot.
82 FH M NOVEMBER 2015
No opponent is lesser or greater to the man known as “Mokong” when it comes to the sport. Michael takes every match seriously.
who once covered the billiards beat. “There was a time almost every year nasa atin ’yung World Pool Championships. Then I hear there were some tournaments na kahit papa’no wellsponsored naman, but even a year later, hindi pa nababayaran ’yung mga winners! These are international names who were just patient enough to try and wait it out. It’s embarrassing. It’s a chicken and egg scenario now—if there’s no tournament, there’s no sponsor, and vice versa.” 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship runner-up Roberto “Superman” Gomez, whom we also had a chance to chat with before he left the country for this year’s WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Doha, Qatar seconds TJ’s claim. “Sumusugal sila (sponsors) ’pag may makikita silang maganda. Siguro nakikita nila na hindi ganun ka-boom kung i-isponsor-an nila ’yung sa bilyar kaysa sa ibang sports tulad ng basketball o boxing,” Gomez says. For what we call lost souls, on the other hand, “sponsors” refer to individuals who essentially place bets on these players and bankroll their competitions and tours. Take for example Michael Baoanan, fondly known as “Mokong” in the billiard circle, a 24-year-old little-known bilyarista from San Pedro, Laguna, who once defeated former Nine-ball (2006) and Eight-ball (2007) World Champion Ronnie Alcano in his first match against a pro. Michael was supposed to compete in a recent tournament organized by Pacquiao in General Santos City when his sponsor backed out three days before he was scheduled to fly out. “Tulad namin na wala naman pang-pocket money sa sarili, lilipad papuntang GenSan, siyempre kailangan may magpaluwal ng pera. Kung wala ka namang sponsor, pa’no mo mapapasikat ’yung sarili mo kung (in the first place) hindi ka makakasali? Kung mga a week before niya ko sinabihan, nakakuha sana ako ng ibang sponsor.” Goes to show that sponsors are the
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lifeblood of the sport. “Wala tayong magawa. Hangga’t hindi tayo hahawakan ng sponsor, patay ’yung (bilyar), Sponsor ang bubuhay sa bilyar, hindi ang players,” Gomez asserts.
MokoNg’s story
Like most youngsters new to the sport, Michael “Mokong” Baoanan, 24, started out at eight years old with the Pinoy version of billiards, colloquially known as “pul,” which involved plastic puck-like disks—an oversized one for the cue puck—and a ton of cornstarch to make the table smooth for the pucks. He transitioned to regular tables when he turned 12, devoting all his adolescent years to billiard halls in the vicinity. While most students cut classes to play, “ako hindi na talaga napasok para magbilyar, ha ha!” Michael shares. He wasn’t able to finish high school but still managed to graduate from TESDA with a certificate in welding. In billiards though, Michael didn’t need any schooling as he was purely self-taught. He admitted that he once shunned someone who was trying to lecture him on the game’s rudiments. “Parang ayoko naman ng tinuturuan ako, parang medyo ma-pride kasi ako.” Still, he was still able to hone his skills with incessant playing, making a name for himself… at least in the amateurs. Able to get acquainted and eventually hook up with managers (in billiards, one could have many), it was only then that Michael fully embraced billiards as his livelihood—a life of regular matches and out-oftown engagements. While the thought of getting acquainted with other pool aces from all over the country and earning more moolah could easily strike the fancy of someone who wishes to establish a reputation in the scene and have billiards as his bread and butter, out-of-town trips aren’t always the thing. Michael recalls one particular billiards tour in Mindanao a couple of years ago that
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