After ‘Azkals’, we now
have the ‘Razcals’; shall we have the ‘Butakals’ next?
By ALEX P. VIDAL / PNS
April 25, 2011
If they did not
swallow whole Vietnam, 2-0, in a startling upset and salvaging draws
against Myanmar and Palestine in the AFF Suzuki Cup last year and
changing their moniker from mere RP XI to “Azkals”, their conquests
would have remained buried deep in the inside pages of the tabloids’
sports section.
A perennial whipping
boy in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the Philippine booters have
instantly captured the national imagination because, aside from their
tall and good-looking British and Spanish mestizo members and foreign
coaches, they are now known as “Azkals” which means “wild dogs” if
translated in local dialect.
And they won the
recent AFC Challenge Cup by blanking
Bangladesh,
3-0, in the group stages.
While all eyes and
ears are on the Azkals, the Philippine boys’ baseball team now
nicknamed the “Little Razcals” won the recent Asia Pacific Zone Pony
Mustang Baseball Championship in Vietnam which was a qualifier to the
World Series.
Their come-from behind
win over Singapore, 14-6, earned them a slot to represent the Asia
Pacific region to the Pony Mustang Baseball World Series in Burleson,
Texas on August 3-6, 2011.
The Little Razcals
started their campaign with a 13-3 rout of Singapore, waylaid host
Vietnam, 26-3, and outclassed Indonesia, 21-16, to sweep the
eliminations and go into the finale spotless.
Young baseball players
also easily grabbed the spotlight because aside from marching to the
higher league where they will be pitted against heavier and more
experienced rivals from all over the world including the US and
Caribbean countries, they are now known as “Little Razcals” which is
equivalent to infamy when the letter z is changed to s in the
spelling.
The Little Razcals is
composed of Javier Jesus Sale, Marty Alonso Ranada, Vincent Joshua
Noprado, John Fritz Natanauan, Lorenzo Montemayor, Efril Ian Mercado,
Robert Emmanuel Manaig, Jose Marie Javier Limpo, Daniel Isaac Fabella,
Zian Javiel Eleria, Lloyd Christian Cinco, Charles Joshua Castillo,
Carl Christopher Castaneda, Nathan Joseph Carpio, and Ezequiel Cyros
Agojo.
According to team
manager Rodolfo Tingzon, Jr., the Razscals will participate in a
series of local tournaments to build up for the World Series.
“It is our first time
to join in the 10 years old and under category at nag champion pa tayo
sa Asia Pacific. From the start, I never expected the team to win
because the opponents were a lot bigger than our players. That’s why
we thought we had nothing to lose,” team coach Eric Gesmundo, former
member of the RP team told campus writer Jaser Marasigan in a recent
interview.
“But I saw how our
boys really wanted to make it to the World Series. I told them, minsan
lang ito kaya huwag niyong sayangin. Kaya mas lalo silang motivated
ngayon.”
Because of the fad
nowadays to glamorize the moniker of our national teams possibly to
whip up their fighting mood, we won’t be surprised if our rowing teams
in outdoor event will soon be named as “Butakals” which has more
horrendous and repulsive English translation.