MERALCO-GINEBRA TIFF NO HOLDS BARRED

A gauntlet has been thrown down by officials of Barangay Ginebra and
newcomer Meralco, the two ballclubs that will duke it out in the Oct.
3 inaugural game of the PBA Philippine Cup, kicking off the 36th
season at the Araneta Coliseum.

Kings alternate governor Robert Non and Bolts board representative
Ramon Segismundo minced no words at the close of a three-day PBA
planning session in Bangkok last week in vowing to throw everything
into the encounter except their pension funds.

“Our employees wearing orange shirts will be there in full force,”
announced Segismundo, Meralco senior vice president and head of human resources.

“We know that Ginebra has a huge following, but we hope to also make
our presence felt.”

Segismundo and Non, along with PBA commissioner Chito Salud and
several other governors, including league chairman Rene Pardo of B-Meg
Derby Ace, joined sportswriters after dinner one evening at the Amari
Watergate Hotel and engaged each other in friendly banter.

Non, San Miguel Corporation’s basketball operations chief, smiled
coyly on hearing the veiled challenge.

“That, I have to see,” said Non, agreeing to a suggestion Ginebra may
have to ask its fans to come in red.”

“Puwede ‘yan,” Non said, laughing. “Para magka-alaman agad ng maaga pa.”

An opening day featuring Ginebra is a rare occurrence because the PBA,
assured of a traditionally large inaugural crowd, usually schedules
the Kings on the next play date to ensure back-to-back SRO venues.

But a special guest has personal history dating back to the glory
years of both Meralco and Ginebra, making for a gripping subplot.

“Who can resist when you have the Big J, Robert Jaworski, there on
opening day?” said Salud, who revealed that the former Meralco star –
during the old MICAA days in the ‘70s – and immensely popular Ginebra
playing-coach – in the ‘80s and ‘90s – has been invited to grace the
curtain-raiser.

Jaworski, along with Alberto ‘Big Boy’ Reynoso, Jimmy Mariano, Gene
Lucindo, Orly Bauzon, Alfronso Marquez, Larry Mumar and a young
Francis Arnaiz, among others, stood in the forefront of the Meralco
Reddie Kilowatts’ bitter rivalry with the Crispa Redmanizers, a feud
the spilled over to the PBA after its formation in 1975, Meralco’s
eventual disbandment, and Toyota acquiring Jaworski and Co.

When Toyota folded early in the ‘80s, Jaworski and Arnaiz went to
Gilbey’s Gin, the forerunner of the Barangay Ginebra Kings, giving the
PBA its biggest attraction since Crispa-Toyota and Robert Non and
Ramon Segismundo, many years later, their merry bone of contention.(pr)