Cinderella Man: A New Hero from Calamba, Laguna
Mike Banos
November 13, 2006
Like Rizal, the country’s latest ‘national hero’ evokes the many virtues of the Great Malayan, such as humility, a simple lifestyle, and a single-minded drive for excellence which will be the talk of the town for days to come.
A simple elementary school graduate, Alcano knew he had to hone his skills and innate talent at billiards to provide for his family. His rise was so quiet almost no one remembers he was the key player in RP billiards two gold medal haul in the 23rd SEAGAMES (15-ball singles and 15 ball pool doubles).
The 34-year old cue master is also a former 9-ball Asian tour Champion and became part of the RP pool of athletes in 2005. But until his rise to fame this last week, almost nobody knew these previous accomplishments and surely most did not care or give a heck.
Well, he certainly cleared their collective memories in a hurry. Truly, victory has many fathers while defeat is an orphan. GMA and the Senators wasted little time jumping on the “Calamba” band wagon, with the president having no less than three stories in the Philippine News Agency website yesterday, all beating around the bush about how Pinoys should emulate Alcano’s focus and passion for perfection.
But did any of those great people mention, much less care what happened to the likes of Bata Reyes, Djanggo Bustamante, or Alex Pagulayan after they were eliminated? I was closely following the competitions on TV and it was a rare occasion when one of the Pinoy cue masters who’ve brought so much honor and prestige to the country in international billiards competitions here and abroad was shown on camera, much less interviewed after they were eliminated.
But we digress. Back to ‘Ronnie Calamba’ whom British broadcasters instantly christened ‘The Volcano” for his quiet but explosive type of play. Many of the popular players he played hardly knew what hit them and were sent off before they knew it.
His first two games in the group phase resulted in defeats to Vietnam's Luong Chi-dung, 8-7 and German Christian Reimering, 8-3, leaving him on the brink of elimination.
Because of the number of racks he conceded, Alcano needed to to win by a score of at least 8-2 to qualify for the round of 64. And he proceeded to do just that, beating Marcel Martens of the Netherlands in an 8-2 nail biter.
He was one of only two players to qualify for the round of 64 after only winning one of their three games and was ranked as the player with the worst record after the group phase elimination.
Still unnoticed by the crowd busy focusing on the likes of his more heralded fellow Pinoy cue masters, Alcano made a timely adjustment which had an electrifying effect on his game: He noted the soft break worked wonders for his game against Martens and he decided to stick with it for the rest of the tourney. Now the rest, of course, is history.
First to have a first-hand taste of the fiery new weapon was fellow Pinoy Roberto Gomez who hardly knew what hit him following a 10-1 demolition. Now in the round of 32, came the first of Alcano’s truly defining moments when he shellacked his childhood idol and crowd favorite Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes with a methodical 10-7 triumph.
Pinoy fans started to come to his games in droves after that, and he did not disappoint. His second defining moment followed suit, as he shocked 2005 WPC runner-up Kuo Po-cheng of Taiwan with an 11-5 demolition in the round of 16.
For his efforts, he was rewarded with defending champion Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan as his next opponent in the last eight. No problem, and Wu was history with a similar 11-6 beating.
The only player beside his two elimination round opponents who really gave Alcano trouble was his semi-final opponent, the similarly unknown Li He-wen of China.
Called Dangerman by pool analysts covering the event and ‘Doraemon’ after the Japanese anime cat by his fans, the diminutive and unassuming WPC rookie quickly became the tourney’s dark horse as he mowed down his opponents with a methodical precision and error-free game, including 2003 WPC Champion Alex Pagulayan and Alcano’s elimination round tormentor Loung Chi-dung of Vietnam.
This is the first time players from the Mainland have competed in the WPC and the 26-year old from Beijing had already previously given a good account of himself, reaching the finals of the Vietnam leg of the SMB Asian Tour where he lost to Bata Reyes.
But Alcano proved the steadier of the two and prevailed 11-8 though he was taken to the edge by Li, who conceded the last rack after his error left the 9-ball hanging on the edge of a pocket.
Alcano’s previous best WPC finish was reaching the last 64 in 2005. Senator Villar didn’t need to look far in looking for superlatives for the new Filipino hero. His “Sipag at Tiyaga” suits Ronnie Calamba just fine.
Postscript:
It’s a credit to our sitting president she didn’t show up in front of international TV to congratulate the latest Pinoy toast of the nation.
I had a bad taste in my mouth when she was helped up the ring to congratulate Manny Paquiao shortly after he won over Oscar Larios. Thank God, we can count on Cerg Remonde, her new Director General for the Presidential Management Staff, to bring some class, taste and delicadeza into Malacañang.
But even Cerge wasn’t fast enough to stop his chatterbox boss from raining (gushing?) on Alcano’s parade. Just after she urged Pinoys to make ‘Calamba’ a role model, she was telling them in almost the same breath to pray for a win for Manny Pacquiao in his third fight against Erik Morales on the 18th of this month.
Nothing wrong with that, as is. But everyone knows how close Pacquiao has become to Malacañang, even going as far as changing his voter’s registration to Quezon City from Gensan in anticipation of some grand political plan next year.
Manny is not exactly your ideal role model with his braggadocio, flashy lifestyle, illegitimate children, and penchant for politics and showbiz. But his fame and notoriety translates to an unflappable popularity that many politicians as directly translatable to votes for next year’s poll, the sitting president included (or should that be, the sitting president, especially?)
comments to mike _banos@walla.com
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