Category Archives: blog

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, Filipino, news, sports

Emil Guillermo: The top three chess players in the U.S. are Asian American. How did that happen?

The U.S. Chess Championships ended this week when  Hikaru Nakamura was crowned the winner of the tournament and the nation’s undisputed No.1.

chessrobsonsorobsonmoves

But the key match in the whole thing turns out to be the one between Ray Robson and  Wesley So, two former roommates at Webster University in St.Louis.

The much higher-rated So lost to Robson, who told me later he was surprised that So made three bad moves. The blunders gave Robson an advantage to win the match and second place. So placed  third.

And the much anticipated showdown between Nakamura and So never happened.

Was So distracted and by what?  See my story.

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blog, diversity, Filipino, journalism, race, SF Giants, sports

Emil Guillermo: My take on Britt McHenry and what I call “White Media Privilege,” the sleeping baggage handler, and those world champion SF Giants.UPDATED

 

Once again video is our collective social conscience, or at least the instant replay of life that enables all of us to judge. High and low.

BrittMcHenry

And that’s what ESPN’s Britt McHenry’s rant at the towing company was all about.

Arrogance.

I mean really, when you begin a rant with “”I”m in the news, sweetheart,” you are not talking about fat-shaming.

Should we be surprised that  TV people are full of themselves?  I watched that ESPN Britt McHenry blowup and was surprised that people were surprised.

Britt’s no Reese Witherspoon, but remember how the “Wild” star threw a fit and was arrested by a cop in Atlanta?

People in the media, high and low, get these “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM” moments. It’s because “MEDIA PRIVILEGE” is more intoxicating than “WHITE PRIVILEGE.” And when you are white and in the media, it’s even more toxic.

For people who protest McHenry’s suspension by saying it’s not work related: Who do you think is watching the news? It’s all those people who work at towing companies. That’s the audience on the other side of the camera.

Update on McHenry: Britt backers say the tape was edited. Sure. But they didn’t put the words in McHenry’s mouth. Believe me, I hate tow companies as much as the next guy, but McHenry had a chance to use her power positively. And she didn’t. I know what happens when you work in TV. This is the reason why beauty pageant contestants want to be anchors. It’s cheap showbiz entitlement. This incident serves as  a wake up call for everyone on the “talent” side.

THAT BAGGAGE HANDLER NAPPER BANNED BY ALASKA AIRLINES

His identity is still not revealed. But I can tell he’s Asian. Maybe even Filipino. It’s his accent on the 911 call.  There’s a magic phrase that resonated.

He said “stop it.”

THOSE WORLD CHAMPION SF GIANTS

That 7-6 loss in 12 innings could become a symbol of the season.

The Giants battled and the players with something to prove, Matt Duffy and joe Panik, did what they could to extend the game, getting key hits to tie the game in the 9th and the 10th innings.

They almost did it again in the 12th.

The seventh loss in a row puts the Giants  in last place, the second worst team in the NL.

It’s early, yes. But there’s something about an early Thursday night extra-inning loss as the team tries to win their first game at home.

That’s the kind of thing that could prophesy  a 162 game season.

A theme emerges.  Yes, the  team battles, comes back,  but comes up short by a run.  In soccer, the phrase often used is “Unlucky.”

It’s something a team that has won three World  championships since 2010 has rarely heard.

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blog, everything else, Filipino

Emil Guillermo: Here’s a motivational, feel-good post to get you back in the game

Joshua Ortiz, an American Filipino out of Orlando, Florida, did this three-minute film to lift up his brothers and sisters when they were struggling.

Ortizjoshmonicajoel

Here Josh (left) stands next to his sister, Monica, and his brother, Joel.

The film recently  won a Project Greenlight award from Ben Affleck/Matt Damon and HBO.

Need a lift? Or maybe you’re just watching the Giants lose again? Here’s Josh’s  film that will get you back thinking positively again.  Check it out.

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blog, Linceblog: Following Tim Lincecum, SF Giants, sports

Linceblog: Tim Lincecum’s first inning blues; one pitch golfed into the stands makes all the difference.

cuLincenohitterday_edited

(Lincecum pictured here on a much better day).

He still made batters miss tonight. But the Giants’ Tim Lincecum’s  28 pitch 1st inning set the tone against the Rockies Wednesday night.

A walk and a hit put runners on base for Colorado batter Nolan Arenado, last night’s defensive star.  ‘

Tonight he was the offensive star.

With two pitches, Lincecum fooled him badly and looked like he had him with two strikes in the count. But Arenado anticipated the next pitch, a slow curve outside, and golfed it into the left centerfield seats to make it 3-0, Rockies.

Usually you can weather that if you have a decent offense.

But when you have a team that can barely muster a run, giving up three in the first make the home team’s bats even heavier.

Lincecum had some good ball movement in the first. But he isn’t showing much velocity. His fastball only hit the gun at 88 mph, which doesn’t make for enough of a speed variance to fool hitters consistently.

The Arenado sequence went 72, 80, 78.  Even with some movement, the pitches start looking the same.  Lincecum tried one more slop pitch away and Arenado got him.

Lincecum’s line didn’t look all that  bad.  He went 5 innings;  88 pitches; gave up 6 hits; 4 runs, 3 earned,1 walk (good control), and 4 strikeouts (he still fooled some of them).

He just didn’t get run support.

But then, this is the team that scores in the post season with  sac bunts, double plays and normal outs.

It just seems more charming in the post-season. Early in the regular season, it just seems …less  charming.

Giants got back a run in the first with Aoki (HBP) and Pagan with an RBI single scratching out some offense.

They didn’t get shut out.

The Rocks added a run in the second  to make it 4-1.

And you know Lincecum would have wanted that one pitch to Arenado back, as he watched the rest of the game from the dugout.

UPDATE: Matt Duffy added a homerun for the Giants in the bottom of the 8th.  And that made the score appropriate for Jackie Robinson Day.  In a game where everyone wore No.42, the score ended up appropriately, 4-2.