Hardball

Starting at 10:30 p.m. tonight, the landscape of Philippine sports television will be changed, as ABS-CBN News Channel launches the first daily sports talk show in the country: Hardball.

The great thing about sports is that everyone has an opinion about it. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view), Filipinos often keep their strong feelings to themselves, unless somebody says it for them. All the armchair critics and coaches and general "miron" of sports will now have an outlet to vent their ire, express their opinions, and offer suggestions to the powers that be in local sports. And to a global audience, even.

In the US, programs such as the cable show Sportswriters on TV and Fox’s Pardon The Interruption have set a precedent for heavily-opinionated sports talk. A lot of the talk on radio sports programs can actually translate well on television.

The program will be hosted by a trio of sports broadcasters from a wide background. Jinno Rufino is the host of Studio 23’s SportsTV and the host and producer of Hotwire. he has also interviewed several NBA All-Stars in person, and is an active athlete who played college basketball in the US. Boyet Sison is a veteran of the Center for Sports Communication who has covered PBA games on radio after an extensive and impressive background in the music industry. Sison also has a daily sports and music program on Rock990. Yours truly rounds out the cast of Hardball, with twenty years of sports broadcasting and journalism experience.

"This is something fans have been looking for," Sison says. "There’s really no broadcast medium that takes a serious, critical look at what’s going on in Philippine sports. A lot of fans give us feedback, but you don’t get to hear it in public. Now everyone will."

"I’m excited," Rufino adds. "Nobody’s ever done this before. And it’s going to be a lot of fun. We hope real hardcore sports fans participate."

Since the maiden broadcast of Hardball takes place the day after the third Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales fight, we will be giving away a Manny Pacquiao t-shirt to a lucky viewer. Every day will feature new contests or chances for viewers to participate, and even make predictions on upcoming sporting match-ups anywhere in the world.

The program begins with the Main Event, a freewheeling discussion of the top sports story of the day, from the three different views of the hosts. We may or may not disagree with each other, and we’ll definitely have something meaty and funny to say about it. One of the first questions we’ll pose each other is: would you consider Manny Pacquiao the greatest Filipino boxer of all time?

On Hot Ticket, we ask the fans to predict which team or athlete will come out on top in an upcoming major sporting event. Of course, the hosts will give their own prognoses, and make sure to pick on the one who gets it wrong on the following day’s episode. Frankly, I’m a bit nervous about that part.

Then we come to First Five, where we’ll have five minutes to break down five different issues, events and developments in sports for that day. This will be frantic, since we’ll only have one minute to squeeze in three opinions per issue. And alarm bells will literally go off.

Another interesting portion of the program will be our One on One interviews. For Monday’s show, we will travel to Bulacan to get the thoughts on veteran international referee Bruce McTavish on the Pacquiao-Morales bout. Also lined up are action star Robin Padilla, a devoted practitioner and chairman of Muaythai Association Philippines, as well as other big names and controversial figures in sport.

To end each episode, we will have an open debate on seemingly endless questions in sport. Who was the greatest athlete in a particular sport? What qualifies as a sport in the first place? Why can’t we win an Olympic gold medal (or have Filipinos already done it)? And so on.

Make Hardball your new daily habit starting tonight at 10:30 p.m on ANC.