Beggars Can't Be Choosers Part 1: We Were Pool Players First

**I'm writing this as a very subjective pool player verging dangerously in between waaay-too-pissed-to-even-fake-flattery and too-headstrong-to-practice-eloquence.

Ronnie Alcano won the world pool championship early this November 2006. One commentator mentioned that the Philippines was the Pool Capital of Asia.It was never that publicized. An accomplishment of global proportions wasn't that publicized. I mean, compared to this one Filipino dude who outpunched this other Mexican loser (one for team spirit), Ronnie Alcano's victory shrivelled like a nutsack in December.

Manny Pacquiao defeated Erik Morales two weeks following Alcano's world title in a humiliating match that sealed Morales' fate easy on the third round. This, in turn, released a floodgate of incoming endorsements and unnecessary worship which included plans for his very own statue to stand along Baywalk.

And much like a certain testicular abnormality, it's just as unequal.

I, for one, am not looking forward to it, but he will have his own monument real soon.

It is excessive. And I guess that's the nearest we can get to being true to form. See, an over-the-top display like this relieves us of the practicality that a country as poor as ours should be practicing.

Manny Pacquiao was awarded the Order of Lakandula (Champion for Life) July 2006. The legendary Efren "Bata" Reyes followed suit October of 2006. True, both champions share the same honor, but the Magician is just recently basking in the fields of glory which has been Pacman's teritorry four months earlier.

Funny thing is that he was championing the Philippine flag waaaay before Pacquiao started trying his first mouthpiece on.

What's up with that?