New Cable Channel Showing Classic PBA games

[spongklong]

Wala. Only Destiny has Pinoy Extreme. Sky Cable kasi has Balls and BTV already.

and cablelink

[Jay P. Mercado]

Presto had chemistry issues in 1992 despite the star-laden lineup. Their team was something every new franchise would love to have - players like Allan Caidic, Apet Jao, Gerry Esplana, Bong Hawkins, Vergel Meneses, Zaldy Realubit, yet, they couldn't get untracked even if they had the eminent Tommy Manotoc as their head coach that year.

With the top draft pick of 1993, everything would have been ideal for Presto. But the Gokongweis' lack of interest eventually prevailed, and the franchise was sold to Exie Robles' company. And since the franchise was bought in full, they were able to retain the top pick of the draft - which turned out to be no less than Jun Limpot.

Yet, we all know what happened. The nucleus was disbanded and a totally new team was formed. Of course, we knew from the beginning that there was already an internal arrangement betwee San Miguel and Sta. Lucia to release Caidic to them. The interesting part was giving up Presto starters Meneses and Realubit to Swift for veterans Jack Tanuan and Andy De Guzman. This was particularly startling since the stock value of Messrs. Meneses and Realubit was considerably higher than the latter two.

SLR had the penchant of getting little-known Cebuano players in their lineup. Players like Montoy Singson, Melchor Teves, Vidal Librada, among others suited up for the Realtors. This may be because Nat Canson was their coach. Canson was known to prefer players who are blue-collar workers and who would give everything on the court. Prior to SLR, Canson also was an assistant coach at Toyota, was the head coach of Gold Eagle Beer and handled the Alaska Milkmen.

[Gunnar]

It was because SLR wanted to "build" a competitive team. Buddy Encarnado was quoted "we are not here to buy championships". This goes with their philosophy to really "build" a team. So they traded Presto's stars that they inherited like Caidic, Meneses, and Hawkins and built their team around Jun Limpot and Gerry Esplana in 1993 with Nat Canson as their first ever coach.

He was also quoted before that they will never draft a fil-am. But in 2006, they drafted Kelly Williams. Yet he re quoted, fake fil ams hehehe.

[James Ty III]

Game shown last night was between Purefoods TJ Hotdogs and Ginebra. 1996 All Filipino. Big J was still playing coach with Chot Reyes handling the Hotdogs. Ginebra had the young core of Aquino, David, Locsin, Feihl and Hizon.

That game has been shown on Pinoy Extreme so many times already.

[Jay P. Mercado]

No, that was a different game shown last night compared to the one that was shown in the past...

[James Ty III]

Sorry, Jay. I was referring to the 1997 AFC finals, Game 1. That has been shown a lot of times on Greatest Games.

Jay, I also saw this morning a 1987 game between Hills Bros. and Tanduay. Can you show some Greatest Games that Boom Gonzales covered for Viva TV and NBN before? Boom was with the PBA before he moved to ABS for the UAAP.

Can you also show some games that Sev Sarmenta covered? We miss him at the PBA since AKTV took over from Solar.

[Jay P. Mercado]

We don't schedule games based on who's the broadcaster on board. What we do is to feature a profile on a particular player, team, event, or accomplishment and these form the basis of our thematic approach in programming.

If ever Joe Cantada, Sev Sarmenta and Boom Gonzales were the assigned broadcasters for the games that will be shown, well and good. We've done several games where Sarmenta and Cantada were the anchors. I think we've done Gonzales at least once in the past. Since we're also playing the games of the 2003 season at present, the chances of Gonzales coming out is very likely.

[James Ty III]

We don't schedule games based on who's the broadcaster on board. What we do is to feature a profile on a particular player, team, event, or accomplishment and these form the basis of our thematic approach in programming.

If ever Joe Cantada, Sev Sarmenta and Boom Gonzales were the assigned broadcasters for the games that will be shown, well and good. We've done several games where Sarmenta and Cantada were the anchors. I think we've done Gonzales at least once in the past. Since we're also playing the games of the 2003 season at present, the chances of Gonzales coming out is very likely.

Jay, what game of Boom was shown on Greatest Games?

[Jay P. Mercado]

I don't remember....probably FedEx versus Sta. Lucia.

[James Ty III]

I don't remember....probably FedEx versus Sta. Lucia.

Boom was not the anchorman, as far as I know. It was Paolo Trillo. That game was played at Makati Coliseum.

[Jay P. Mercado]

Then it could have been another game. Feel free to watch it regularly so you can catch him on air once more...

[Gunnar]

Hi Jay,

Have you already shown the Presto vs. Anejo Basketbrawl with Briggs, Davis et al.?

Or the Anejo vs. Alaska Jaworski phantom punch?

[Jay P. Mercado]

Gunnar,

Not yet. That was the 1988 season featuring Ward and Davis (not Briggs since he started playing only in 1989) and we're featuring the 1987 season at this time.

[Gunnar]

Gunnar,

Not yet. That was the 1988 season featuring Ward and Davis (not Briggs since he started playing only in 1989) and we're featuring the 1987 season at this time.

Ward pala hehehe. Briggs was with Shouse and Ennis Whatley. Thanks Jay!

[Than]

Yet, we all know what happened. The nucleus was disbanded and a totally new team was formed. Of course, we knew from the beginning that there was already an internal arrangement betwee San Miguel and Sta. Lucia to release Caidic to them.

Hi Jay,

If my memory serves me right, Allan Caidic, together with Presto Tivoli 1992 Rookie pick 6'5 back up Center Joseph Valdez was traded to SMB for a future 1st Round pick.

[Jay P. Mercado]

Hi Than.

Yes, that's correct. What I meant to say was Allan Caidic has been eyed all along by San Miguel from the getgo. Since Caidic and Presto generally had an excellent working relationship, Caidic spent 6 seasons with the Gokongwei franchise as one, if not, the marquee player.

Caidic was traded to San Miguel, if I'm not mistaken, when Sta. Lucia already bought the Presto franchise in 1993.

[jsonmiles]

Pepsi made terrible decisions in their short tenure in the league as I see wala akong nakitang high draft pick ang Pepsi to think nasa lower 3 lagi sila ng standings maliban kay Vic Pablo na trinade din nila sa San miguel.

[Jay P. Mercado]

Pepsi wasn't the best-managed franchise in the PBA although in fairness, they did try to make themselves relevant but their efforts didn't turn out well. Unlike their batchmate, Swift, who also joined the league as an expansion team in 1990, Pepsi wasn't quite as successful.

Some notable events in Pepsi's history:

1. They joined the league in 1990 and got SMB's Tonichi Yturri as their top pick in the expansion pool. Swift, which owned the first pick, selected Joey Loyzaga of Anejo.

2. They placed 2nd in the 1992 Reinforced Conference behind batchmate Swift. The unfortunate part was that this franchise may be regarded in history for being part of perhaps one of the two most lopsided series in PBA history. With Delano Demps as their reinforcement, the Derrick Pumaren-mentored team (then called the 7/Up Uncolas) lost 4-0 in a sweep against Swift, led by Tony Harris.

3. Pepsi was able to acquire 1993 second overall pick Victor Pablo from Ginebra when the former FEU stalwart refused to suit up for Ginebra because of a lower salary offer. Pepsi was offering the maximum rookie salary of P100k but Ginebra refused to pay this much. As such, he was eventually traded to Pepsi for Manny Victorino.

4. Pepsi was involved in three blockbuster offer sheets that probably changed the way players were paid. In 1991, Alvin Patrimonio was offered the maximum contract of 5 years worth more than P25M in what turned out to be the most lucrative offer sheet given that time. Purefoods eventually decided to match Pepsi's offer.

5. In 1996, Zandro "Jun" Limpot was also offered by the franchise with the maximum salary after his contract with Sta. Lucia expired. That was worth around P28M. It was eventually matched by the Realtors who wanted to keep their twin tower tandem of Dennis Espino and Limpot as their central figures towards the championship.

6. Also in 1996, after losing to SLR in the Limpot chase, they decided to make an offer to Alvin Teng of SMB. Eventually, the Hotshots decided to deal with the Beermen, trading Pablo to SMB for Teng's services.

7. The first and only coaching trade was consummated between the two batchmates. Swift decided to let Yeng Guiao go and traded him to Pepsi for Derrick Pumaren in 1994. At that time, Guiao has already given Swift two titles. When Pumaren became Swift head coach, he piloted the franchise to two out of three titles in the 1995 season.

8. The first two coaches in Pepsi's history happened to be former Toyota coaches as well. The first one was the late Ed Ocampo, who piloted the Hotshots from 1990 to 1991. He was also Toyota's head coach from 1980 to 1983. Pepsi's second coach was Dante Silverio who ran the team for a short period in the 1991 season. Curiously, Silverio was Toyota's first coach in the PBA, having led the team from 1975 to 1979, in the process, winning 5 PBA titles.

[Gunnar]

6. Also in 1996, after losing to SLR in the Limpot chase, they decided to make an offer to Alvin Teng of SMB. Eventually, the Hotshots decided to deal with the Beermen, trading Pablo to SMB for Teng's services.

This one's a classic. Teng refuses to accept the offer, a max salary perhaps because "iba ang may pinagsamahan". Unfortunately, he was traded. He could have just inked that contract and get the max.

Pepsi got a lot of blunders. Even their 349 promo hehehe

[Jay P. Mercado]

Especially their 349 promo actually!

The 349 promo was a terrible case study of how business shouldn't be done. The competition for being the #1 soda brand in the Philippines has always been give and go - Coke being #1 for a certain period before Pepsi comes up with a huge launch that'll topple Coke off its perch. When Pepsi launched the 1.5 li no-slip grip bottle, it elevated the brand to #1 after several years of Coke domination. Coke eventually re-took its lofty position primarily because of excellent distribution points. Then Pepsi surged ahead once more when they came out with the numbers promo, offering supposedly a million pesos weekly by coming out with three numbers drawn everyday and winners being able to claim the million pesos if the numbers match the same numbers etched on the bottlecaps.

Of course, the principle is that everything's set. They have a certain allocated budget for this - they have pre-drawn numbers already and there would only be one bottlecap that will bear this number. But because of a computer mishap, the # 349 was drawn, when it was pretty much a regular number that had more than a thousand bottlecaps produced.

Disastrous turn of events for Pepsi. They never recovered from this fiasco. Even the ownership kept changing hands. Pepsico ran Pepsi Philippines until 1985. Thereafter, the Escaler family took over and incorporated this as a local company . Then it was re-taken by the Lorenzos who eventually sold it back to Pepsico. They never recovered from their lofty position. There was even a time back in the late 90's that they were third overall in the soda race - behind Coke (then owned by Amatil) and Cosmos of the Concepcion family. Ultimately, the soda business has tapered off significantly after the growing trend on health and wellness and the advent of other alternatives like teas and the like.