WE’VE launched the Hey, Joe INQUIRER.net blog of author and sports columnist Ted Lerner, who will be covering the 2007 World Pool Championship and writing feature stories on pool and the Filipino passion for this sport.
We’ve also just launched the 2007 World Pool Championship Special Site, so keep visiting it for the latest updates.
Here’s an excerpt from Ted’s first entry:
The venue for the tournament has been changed from the intimate Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) to the legendary Araneta Coliseum, the very building where Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier battled in their classic third encounter back in 1975. That fact alone should tell you that this year’s WPC is poised for fireworks. To this day, “The Thrilla in Manila” is still considered one of the greatest heavyweight fights in the history of the sweet science.
Actually, when I first heard about the plan to hold the WPC at the cavernous Araneta, I didn’t think it would work. The place holds over 20,000 people and seems more suited for basketball games and concerts, which are the usual fare there. But I’ve seen the engineering plans and I’m here to tell you that the pool world will have never seen anything like it. They’re going to build raised platforms in the stands for the six outside tables and put two TV tables on the floor. The configuration means they can accommodate upwards of 6, 000 people a day. Seeing as the Araneta sits right in the middle of one of the busiest sections of Manila, they all might very well show up. The last time pool saw many thousands show up for a tournament, America had just emerged from the Great War (that’s World War I.)
And here’s an excerpt from his “A beer, a date, a bet, and the ‘American’ game of pool” article:
It’s what happens when you have your military camped around the world. Your culture — the good, the bad and the ugly — goes with you. Imagine if peace miraculously ever does come to Iraq, 30 to 40 years from now you’ll probably see Iraqi pool players making big strides in the sport. Pool is one of the few American imports the fun-killing fundamentalists over there could probably tolerate. Chains of Hooters restaurants in Baghdad obviously won’t cut it.
In Germany most people could easily trace America’s version of pool back to 1945 and the end of World War II, when, after crushing the Germans, the Americans took up a prolonged residency. For the Philippines the beginnings are not so evident. Pool fans who have never been to the Philippines often wonder how it is that the sport became so vastly popular in this tropical Asian archipelago. Well, check your history folks. 99 out of 100 Americans probably have no clue that the Philippines was once an American colony.
Anyone seeking to unearth one of the reasons for the Filipinos’ insatiable love of pool, need look no further than 80 kilometers north of Manila here to the former US Clark Air Force Base, and the adjacent dusty, bustling, cow-town of Angeles City. You’ve heard of Angeles City, right? Sure you have. That’s the hometown of the greatest player of all time: Efren “Bata” Reyes.
The 2007 WPC will be held at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City from Nov. 3-11. Who do you think will bring home the crown this year?
