For sports fans, seeing their well-loved record gets broken by somebody else is heartbreaking.
Not many New York Yankees fans were amused when Roger Maris eclipsed the 34-year-old record of Babe Ruth for the single season home run record of 60.
Maris had 61@61 when he scored a single season home run record of 61 in 1961.
As a long-time Crispa fan, I was saddened when the Redmanizers’ record of 13 championships was surpassed by San Miguel Beer in the 2000 Commissioner’s Cup.
It took the Beermen — the only remaining pioneering franchise in the PBA’s 48-year existence — 16 years to overcome the Redmanizers’ feat.
To date, San Miguel is the winningest franchise in Asia’s pioneering professional basketball league with 28, the latest championship won was the Philippine Cup this season.
Three more teams had also overtaken Crispa’s number of championship collections won — Barangay Ginebra with 15 and the old Purefoods franchise and the defunct Alaska squad with 14 each.
But Crispa was the only one to win two grand slams in the PBA and the only other one which was able to do such a feat was not a team but a coach in Tim Cone, who completed two triple crowns (1996 with Alaska and 2014 with the old Purefoods franchise).
Perhaps, long-time Crispa fans were still taking pride that the Redmanizers were still holding on to two other records that remained unmatched at this time — the 19-game winning streak it posted in one conference during the 1980 All-Filipino and the 21-game winning run bridging two conferences of the 1983 season, the year of its second grand slam.
There’s an old adage that records are meant to be broken and it’s true.
June Mar Fajardo, the league’s most dominant force, surpassed the record of Mon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio in winning the Most Valuable Player awards.
The 6-foot-10 Cebuano slotman won his fifth MVP award in 2018, then surpassed his own record by adding another one the year after.
Other than Scottie Thompson, who became the MVP of the previous season, no other player has won the highest individual plum than Fajardo in the last eight seasons.
Fajardo and Thompson are among the frontrunners for the award this season and a new feat can be achieved this year.
We also saw import Justin Brownlee and his Ginebra teammate, LA Tenorio, breaking records the past few years.
Now the PBA’s all-time three-point shot leader among imports with 476 treys made, Brownlee also moved up the No. 5 list with 5,268 points and he is expected to surpass Lew Massey for the fourth spot before the season-ending Governors’ Cup wraps up.
In winning his sixth championship with Ginebra last conference over the visiting Bay Area squad, Brownlee also tied Sean Chambers as the import with the most number of championships. Should the Kings successfully defend their crown this conference, he will be on top of the list.
Tenorio continues to break his own record for the number of games played and the streak will continue as long as he’s playing — whether it’s limited minutes or when he’s being utilized more in the playoffs. The veteran guard has no plans to stop.
The streak had been stretched to 737 straight games — and counting.
More records will be shattered as the tournament progresses.
