Category Archives: blog

blog, news, sports

The dominance of Lincecum, the roar of the crowd, the power of baseball

As a young boy, my earliest and lasting memories as a SF Giants fan were the resounding cheers for the heroes of ’62:  Cepada, McCovey, and Mays—but especially Mays.  

He didn’t have to do anything but come to the plate and have his name announced and Candlestick Park would quake.  

I’ve never really experienced anything live at any baseball game that could ever come close to the roar Mays could inspire.

Maybe I just haven’t been to the right games in person.

 But yesterday I was. Game 1 NLDS, Braves and Giants, Tim Lincecum’s first post-season start.

That’s when I heard it again: AT&T Park reached and surpassed the mythic roar of my Candlestick.

Electric crowd?  It was practically nuclear.  When the focus is all on Lincecum, the wunderkind pitcher, it’s not just a sporadic burst of cheers every nine batters for a star like Mays.  It’s pitch by pitch throughout the entire game.  And just as in the days of old, before the baseball gods created the closer, Lincecum pitched the entire game (119 pitches).

Lincecum’s dominance really was quite deceptive. In retrospect, there’s no question that to the Braves, Lincecum was untouchable. But when you’re at the game, the electricity is like an unbroken circuit. You’re living and dying with every pitch, and totally in the moment. Dominance isn’t a reality until the last out is recorded.  And then you look back and realize the Freak has 14 strikeouts, and by golly, the Giants one run has held up.  

The 14 K’s were the most in franchise history since the ’62 Giants, when it was ace Jack Sanford who rung up 10 Yankees.

I was happy to hear the stat, mostly because it brought up the name of an oft forgotten Giant.

Sanford who passed away in 2000 at age 70, was another favorite of mine.  He won 16 consecutive games in 1962 to propel the Giants to the pennant that year.  Normally, Juan Marichal’s name comes up when people remember the arms of ’62.  But to me Sanford was the guy that year, his only really stellar year.

As the Giants surged to win the NL West on the last day of the season, there was lots of talk about 62. But few, if any, ever mentioned Sanford, until Lincecum took the mound tonight.

This was just  Lincecum’s first outing, a harbinger of more greatness to come, as if two Cy Young awards in his first two full years didn’t already indicate that.   Lincecum had a rough August, but his return to form in September continues into  October.

He’s got his Filipino side in him working again.

Next for the Giants comes Matt Cain, then Jonathan Sanchez. And Madison Bumgarner.   And Lincecum again.  And when they tire, Brian Wilson and the bearded and unbearded pen lay in waiting.

With those arms maybe all you do  need is a couple of hits, a walk, and a run scored on a double play.  (The Giants have 159 or so of those this year).

I’m almost as old as the number on Timmy’s back. But I haven’t felt this way about baseball since I was a kid.  

On Thursday, I saw it, and heard it. I’m going back for more.

blog, news, politics

Philippine President NoyNoy Aquino, regular guy, goes to mass, genuflects, tells Filipino community trip to U.S. was worth it

In California, he played video games at HP headquarters,  ate In-and-Out burgers, and stayed in the Hotel Sofitel,slightly less regal accommodations than the Waldorf Astoria while in New York.

But nothing says you’re a regular Filipino guy like what you do on Sunday and on Sunday, Benigno Aquino III, AKA “NoyNoy,”  which has morphed into “P-Noy,”  was at mass in San Francisco with hundreds of American Filipino community members.

 “Please pray for me and our nation, “ Aquino asked the mass goers at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco’s Mission district. “If united, nothing is impossible for us to achieve.”

It was the final touch to a U.S. trip that included key meetings at the UN, another with ASEAN leaders meeting co-chaired by President Barack Obama, and talks with U.S. business interests including Citibank.

 Aquino said despite the costs of the trip, it had been worth it, returning to Manila with $2.7 billion in investment and aid commitments to the Philippines.

Still, that’s relatively small compared to the nearly $20 billion overseas Filipinos working in the U.S. and around the world send back to the Philippines each year, roughly 10 percent of the Philippines gross domestic product.

Aquino’s trip had had come under criticism as being a distraction from the more pressing domestic reforms he faces in the Philippines. But he stressed that the trip had reaped benefits for the country, as well as reassure American Filipinos the country was moving in the right direction.

COMING: Why American Filipinos care what happens in the Philippines.

blog, diversity, news, politics, race

In bypassing Dream Act, the Senate shows no vision in creating positive immigration reform

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What’s with the Senate’s inaction to move on the Dream Act?

Vindicative, close-minded conservatives have blocked a provision that would allow industrious undocumented students a chance to prove their worth in American society. 

With the Dream Act, a high school student could have been given a pathway to citizenship with the right to attend college or join the military.

Instead, a Senate, lacking vision, has snuffed out those dreams, and killed the measure.

These are the immigrants we want in America. They are innocent children whose families came here looking for opportunity. 

When you say no to these young people, you only expose the cruel illogic of anti-immigration advocates.

blog, diversity, everything else, news, race

Emil Guillermo: How one couple remembers 9-11 as a day of peace, love and family

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 They are the perfect antidote to 9-11.

That’s what I call American Filipinos Sam and Gina C. of California, and their kids Malacas and Pinay. (Of course, names have been changed to protect the innocent).

Sam served in the Navy and both he and Gina come from military families. Their 9-11 patriotism cannot be questioned.  They mourn like everyone else the tragic losses on that day.

But instead of dwelling on the negative which can foment the kind of anti-Islamic sentiment we’ve seen crop up with threatened Koran burnings and the like, they are overwhelmed by a different feeling every Sept. 11.

 It’s one of how global peace , love, and family really can triumph over terror.  Again and again.

They just have to recall how they spent their day, Sept. 11, 2001.

The family was on a plane to New York scheduled to land around 9 a.m.

Of course, they didn’t make it.

Gina recalls how the captain suddenly came on the loud speaker. “He said they were experiencing difficulty and they wanted us to land and deplane,” Gina said. “Usually it’s the closest area nearby. We were over Nova Scotia. They took us to Ireland.”

Fans of geography will note how this is not exactly the ideal path one would take to an eventual destination of California, with or without a working GPS. 

But this was supposed to be a unique journey.

ADOPTED PARENTS

When their trip began two weeks prior from California, Sam and Gina were just a middle-aged couple heading to Moscow. After years of fertility doctors and the pain of trying to conceive, Sam and Gina turned to adoption as their option. Af first they turned to the Philippines. But being an older couple worked against them in finding an infant. Then they found a local California agency that suggested they go to Kazakhstan to find a baby in need of a home. 

Sam liked the idea of Kazakhstan. Pre-Borat, few people had ever even heard of the former Soviet satellite. In Kazakhstan, the babies can look a little bit East and a little bit West. The Asian influence is as strong as the Russian ethnic strain. 

“They sent us pictures and videos,” said Sam. “And we could choose the baby we wanted.”

The couple, in their 40s at the time, liked the Asian look of the babies. That was important to them knowing the child would be given a Filipino upbringing.  They felt  it would help the transition in becoming a real family.

The process took less than eight months, and as they went through it, it was too hard to just adopt one. 

They took a pair: Malacas and Pinay.

They call them their Kazapinos.

THE FLIGHT BACK

But getting the newly minted global Pinoy family back to their home in California would be no small feat. Just going from Kazakhstan to Moscow was far from easy. By the time they were on the Moscow to New York leg, crossing the Atlantic, the family thought they were home free.

But then the message on the loudspeaker came on.  And without an explanation they were headed the reverse direction— to Ireland.

Picture this: You are travelling internationally in a cramped space with two kids, ages  3 and 5, one of whom is vomiting intermittently on you.  You don’t speak Kazakh or Russian. The babies don’t know English or Taglish. But their cries and screams are universal. 

Is this not the definition of terror?

When they landed in Dublin, the chaos ensued with hundreds of people scurrying, struggling with their bags. Sam and Gina had their kids.  Nothing made sense until they overheard a reservation agent say the words, “Your country has been attacked.”

“I said, ‘What did he say? ‘“  Sam recalled. “It was crazy. As the news unfolded. I thought, ‘This can’t be real.’’

Then he saw a woman crying uncontrollably. She was on the way to visit her son who worked at the World Trade Center.

“She was hysterical,” said Sam. “All I was thinking was, this can’t be real.”

The shock was tempered by the genuine hospitality they found in Dublin.  If you have to wait out the world’s confusion, there are worst places than Dublin.

Within a few days as the airports in the U.S. opened up, Sam and Gina were headed to Atlanta, one of only two airports opened.

There they spent a few more days, before getting the first flight back to California on the 17th.

But something had happened. Amid the terror and the chaos, a real nuclear family was forged

Today, Malacas, now 12, is malacas (big).  “The doctor’s say he’ll be 6 foot 5 inches,” said Sam, who is about a foot shorter than that.

Pinay, is now 15 and was a local beauty queen winner.

Both she and her brother embrace their unique “Kazapinoness.”

Their parents beam with pride over their kids. And they’re glad they made the step to adopt. Filipinos don’t often choose that option. Some think it’s too hard.
“When we hear that, we tell them our story, “Gina said.

Sam and Gina found something unique in their quest for family. They made the world a little smaller by adopting orphans from a far away place. And on a day that terrorized the world, they forged the strongest gesture of peace, love and family imaginable.

9-11? They know what it means.

“The power of God protected this family,” Sam said. “We’ll always remember it.”