SMB trying to ‘Slam’ it again

SAN Miguel Beer lost its Grand Slam bid in 2017, with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel as party spoiler.

It bears recalling as both are sister teams. Meaning, they belong to the San Miguel Corp. conglomerate.

If you come down to it, why didn’t Ginebra “give way?”

A Grand Slam win would have given the Beermen their second Slam since 1989. That would have tied the Crispa Redmanizers’ Slams in 1976 and 1983.

Also, it would have made coach Leo Austria a first time Grand Slam winner.

But it was not meant to be.

Ginebra put aside the sister-act gravy, played its usual do-or-die role to the hilt and dashed away SMB’s Slam hopes.

To the cynics, it seemed unseemly. Why the heck would a buddy not relent? A Slam is a Slam is a Slam. Praise, praise. Ginebra gave its heart out, gutting it out to prevail over SMB in the concluding 2017 third conference.

It didn’t matter at all even if the hurtful result for SMB looked as ugly as Alaska’s conference collapse from a 3-0 lead to a 3-4 defeat a while back—against, ironically enough, to the Beermen.

As SMB licked its wounds for that lost Slam opportunity, Ginebra lapped it up. To some, deflecting dreams is also an elixir.

Then, the Beermen stared a history repeating itself when they faced the Gin Kings in this year’s PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.

But this time, SMB made sure it didn’t blink, bludgeoning Ginebra with a 4-1 outcome in the bestof-seven series to sort of avenge its 2017 setback.

Thus, playing a familiar role again as a finalist—and a favorite anew—San Miguel is up against Magnolia in the Philippine Cup race-tofour Finals. And what else is new? It’s another sister-act scenario as SMB and Magnolia also belong to the SMC organization, the biggest foodbeverage business in the country.

Is it getting to be a habit, SMC squads clashing for crowns against each other time after time?

A win would give SMB a record fourth straight All-Filipino crown, while sparking anew a Grand Slam bid.

The Finals, blasting off last night, will gauge SMB’s Slam worthiness yet again. _______ AFTER 29 years, PAL president Jaime J. Bautista scored his first holein-one at Sta. Elena’s No. 14 recently, winning a Harley Davidson. Cheers, Jimmy!