By Percy D. Della
Eddie Alinea, the most senior among us, turns 84 in August.
He now holds himself together with a cane. Some of his sources say that when mining for sports stories by phone once in a blue moon, Alinea still speaks with the air of his tolerable braggadocio on the beat!
Artemio Engracia Jr., the health buff and Benjamin of our group marked his 70th birthday last November while reportedly shaping up for a triathlon.
Such a tale won’t be outlandish at all since Jun, a former sports editor who retired as news chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ran in six New York and six Chicago Marathons and one Boston Marathon. He also raced in the London Marathon and thus has competed in four of the six Abbott Marathon Majors.
Between the bookends are trivia on the current whereabouts of our gang of six deadline beaters. After chalking up over 300 years of combined sportswriting experience, we are being named lifetime achievers in sports journalism by the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) this year.
We old timers will share the spotlight at our guild’s gala night on March 6. That’s when Hidilyn Diaz, the first ever Filipino Olympic gold medalist, leads top national athletes to be honored by the country’s oldest media organization at the grand ballroom of Manila’s Diamond Hotel.
It would be interesting to see if Recah Trinidad makes it to the event. Mr. Bare Eye has secluded himself since 2020 when the pandemic and flagging revenues conspired then to force the Inquirer to end his run and mine as long-time sports columnists.
His son Chino, the broadcast sports reporter,says he is “prepping” his dad to join us on PSA night. Ka Recs reaches 80 years this year.
Wendell Rupert, Eddie’s son and Manny Pacquiao’s official photographer also says he will go with his dad to the PSA venue and if necessary, will prop him onto a wheelchair to the podium to receive his award.
Former Manila Bulletin sports editor Ding Marcelo and his ex-Inquirer counterpart Al Mendoza told me to be there or be square, an assurance they will show up. Engracia is in Australia and won't be around. for sure.
I turned 73 on March 1. Marcelo, 77 and Mendoza, 72 were my closest chums on the beat in our time.. The late business editor Jose Galang and I were wedding sponsors to Ding and Jo Ann (Maglipon) when they got hitched in the mid 70s.
Mendoza a fellow Ilocano and I were joined at the hips through his column character Nalaing Unay ( Ilocano for Clever One).
Retired Philippine Star sports boss Lito Tacujan, 76, got his lifetime achievement plum in 2019. Lito jokes that the PSA top dogs feared he was about to die due to the debilitating Parkinson’s disease.
The same people may have thought that giving out lifetime achievement honors en masse this year is the right thing since our generation is being stalked by death.
Sports editors Ernie Gonzales and Joe Antonio will also receive special citations.
Both died last year.