When the Philippines won the Little League World Series Filipinos everywhere were celebrating that fact that their country had accomplished greatness in an international sport. If you drive near the area of Subic Bay in the Philippines today, you’ll still find unused, old, and deteriorating baseball diamonds that young Filipino males used to play on that were built by American servicemen while they were stationed there.
Baseball has become popular in Asian nations such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan mainly due to the presence of baseball crazed military members being stationed in those countries. The average height of a male Fiipino is 5’4” and the average height of a professional basketball player is 6’7”.īefore Manny Pacquiao the most successful Filipino athlete or sports team was the 1992 Little League World Series team from Zamboanaga City.īaseball was a popular sport in the Philippines, just as it is in several other countries that had a history of American military bases in their nation. But it appears unlikely we’ll see a superstar Filipino basketball player in the NBA. Brandon Vera and Mark Munoz are two Filipinos who have achieved some level of success in the MMA world, but neither of them has obtained a world title in the UFC and are considered by most to be gatekeepers.īasketball is one of the Philippines’ most popular sports, so popular in fact that the Philippines have their own professional basketball league in which Manny Pacquiao is the owner of one team. Dave Batista is also Filipino, but you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who considers the WWE to be a real sport. But he has publically admitted that he is not close to his Filipino mother and it’s rare to hear him talk about his heritage. Tim Lincecum is half Filipino and the owner of several World Series titles, Cy Young awards, and All Star accolades. The ones you can name carry some kind of asterisk.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a successful Filipino sports icon outside of Pacquiao. The Philippines is a nation that is looking for an icon, somebody that younger Filipinos can look up to. But Pacquiao’s name does come up in debate, and his career is not finished. When boxing historians discuss all-time greats, the names of Villa, Elorde, and Garcia do not come up in discussion. Pinoy greats such as Pancho Villa, Flash Elorde, and Ceferino Garcia helped establish the Philippines as a boxing nation and paved the way for Manny Pacquiao to achieve worldwide success.īut no Filipino has ever had the support of the whole of the Philippines the way Manny Pacquiao does, and no other Filipino athlete has ever had to carry the burden that Pacquiao carries now. With a history marked by conflict and struggle, it should be of no surprise that boxing is one of the most popular sports in the Philippines.įilipinos have held world titles in boxing before the rise of Manny Pacquiao. Manny Pacquiao: carrying the burden of a nation The MNFL and Abu Sayyaf’s base of operations is out of Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines that Manny Pacquiao represents in the Philippine Congress. They developed a reputation as ferocious and brave fighters but they stood no chance against the modern technology of the time.Ĭonflict in the Philippines still exists today, as the Filipino government battles the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Al-Quaeda linked Abu Sayyaf daily. The most popular form of Filipino martial arts, called Eskrima or Kali, was often used by the commoners of the Philippines to fight against their better equipped and more modern enemies.ĭuring the Filipino-American war, Filipinos were armed with mainly bolo knives, bows and arrows, and spears while their counterparts were armed with rifles and firearms. In the centuries that followed, the Filipinos fought against Spanish control, Japanese control, and even American control. He unwisely got involved in the internal affairs of the Filipinos and died in battle while supporting the losing side.
When Ferdinand Magellan landed in the Southern Philippine islands in March of 1521, he discovered that the natives were marred in warfare and conflict. The Philippines has long been a fighting nation.
0 kommentar(er)
