If you’re wondering whatever happened to Andy Seigle, please be informed that he’s fine and living comfortably in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
According to his brother Danny, the former University of New Orleans center is fully recovered from his ACL injury, plays pick-up games for fun and works with trucks. He is now separated from his Filipina wife Gem, who lives in Hawaii with their only child.
“Andy and Gem still have a great relationship,” said Danny. “I think they talk to each other every day in the Internet. They even spent last summer together. Unfortunately, because of his injuries, Andy isn’t able to play at a high level anymore but he still plays when he can. He’s always liked tinkering with trucks so I’m not surprised he’s involved in trucking.”
Andy, 36, arrived here ahead of Danny and was a PBA rookie with Mobiline in 1997. He went on to play for Purefoods and ended his career with Ginebra in 2006-07. Andy saw action for the Philippine team in the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games. His best scoring season was in 2001 when he averaged 14.6 points. He registered his single-game career high of 29 points in his debut year.
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Serbian coach Rajko Toroman and wife Tanja were SBP executive director Noli Eala’s special guests during the New Year holiday weekend in Baguio.
Eala took the Toromans on a tour of the country’s summer capital. Some of the places they visited were the Philippine Military Academy, the Ifugao village, the busy Session Road and the usual tourist hotspots.
The Toromans were in Baguio when the temperature fell to 9 degrees Celsius one morning a few days ago.
Eala said Toroman has a full schedule ahead. He’s coaching the national developmental squad in the SEABA Champions Cup in March and if it qualifies, the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in May. In between the tournaments, Toroman will bring the team to Serbia for a seven-game series and to the US on a 10-day training trip.
While in the US, the plan is for Toroman to supervise a camp where he hopes to discover Fil-Am potentials for the national team. He will evaluate Western Kentucky’s Japeth Aguilar and Oberlin College’s Gian Chiu to determine if they join the crusade in the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup.
Eala said no site has been set for the SEABA Champions Cup and it’s possible Manila will bid to host. This week, Eala will confer with PLDT chairman Manny Pangilinan on a bidding strategy. FIBA-Asia will accept bids to host its tournaments this year starting Jan. 21.
Aside from the Champions Cup, the developmental team will see action in the FIBA-Asia Stankovic Cup and the Southeast Asian Games in Laos.
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Lawyer Delfin Gonzalez, 94, was baffled by Oscar de la Hoya’s disappearing act in his loss by technical knockout to Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas last Dec. 6. He had predicted an easy win for the Golden Boy.
Gonzalez has followed boxing since he was a boy watching smokers at the old Olympic Stadium on Doroteo Jose. He even witnessed Pancho Villa’s world flyweight title defense against Clever Sencio in Manila on May 1, 1925. Villa’s win on points was his last career victory. Two months later, he lost a decision to Jimmy McLarnin in a non-title bout in San Francisco. Villa died 10 days after the defeat due to blood poisoning caused by an ulcerated tooth. He was only 23.
Here’s Gonzalez’ post-mortem:
“I surrender. I accept defeat. On the ring that Saturday night, our boy was the superior fighter. But how can a multi-titled former champion be beaten so handily? I could count the punches Oscar threw easier than those he didn’t. He unleashed his left hooks to the body only a couple of times. He was a one-dimensional fighter that night, moving only in one direction – forward, too slowly to catch Manny. I have been thinking – this was not the Oscar de la Hoya in the film clips shown before the fight.
“What was the reason for Oscar’s poor performance? I think there is something we didn’t see than what we saw – he was slow with leaden feet, he looked drained, appeared befuddled by Manny’s speed of feet, hands and head. There must be a reason why he was badly beaten.
“When Einstein was criticized by fellow scientists for espousing the steady state of the universe because it would in time implode due to gravitational pull among the galaxies, he added to his field equation an ‘Einstein constant,’ an unknown force that silenced his critics. I think there is also a ‘De la Hoya constant’ that will explain his defeat other than what we saw in the ring.
“This is not a Jesuistic attempt to refuse admitting Oscar got beat. But many fans like me can’t believe he lost the way he did.”
In my opinion, De la Hoya miscalculated his ability to retain his power, energy and mobility with the drop in weight. He thought his body would rehydrate overnight after the weigh-in, which was probably rigged to show four less pounds and spare him from paying $3 million for every pound over 147.
With De la Hoya looking more like a zombie than a fighter, Pacquiao had little difficulty finding his mark. Pacquiao didn’t only outfight De la Hoya, he outsmarted him. De la Hoya took the bait by agreeing to fight at 147 and Freddie Roach knew all along he would be putty in Pacquiao’s hands at that limit.