For the entire summer vacation, the B49'ers as they now call themselves would play playground basketball almost everyday; mostly barefooted and half- naked from the waists up in the sandlot in the neighborhood under the scorching heat of the afternoon sun, they would engage the other youngsters of the town in the only kind of sport that they know. They would play with their hearts out until late in the afternoon where they will end up sun-baked, tired and exhausted. The only consolation for their efforts is the bet, a few pesos good enough for a bottle of a family size Coca-cola and 5 packs of Skyflakes biscuits. The price, they don’t really mind as long as they have played with a lot of guts and intensity for what is at stake here is the pride and bragging rights of putting one over the other groups of young boys as well as the reputation of who were the best ball players in the town. When they lost, which they rarely do they will be content on drinking water from a nearby tap to quench their thirst.

Every second week of May, there is a summer basketball league sponsored by the town' s federation of clubs wherein the B49' ers always made their presence felt, for they do not only excel in basketball but were equally notorious for committing various infractions of the game’s rules. They were likened to the Detroit Pistons of the 1989 NBA World Championship Team fame and notoriety and with a playing style that is akin to the Isaiah Thomas’ Bad Boys wherein they play very physical defense and a well -rounded offense. Thus, they were named more appropriately as the "Bad Boys of Tiwi Basketball in obvious reference to their idols from the Motor City on another stage and another side of the world. They played really, really hard and well as a team, never back down from any challenge hurled by the other teams, be it inside or outside the playing court. Their attitude and demeanor captured the people’s imagination and makes them very colorful and exciting for the people of the town to watch.

The games in those days, were usually held during the nighttime in the open-air “pavement", the only cemented basketball court in the town that draws thousands to the usually hotly- contested games. Countless games were suspended and re-scheduled because of the rains that the locals dubbed as the "Agua de Mayo*" but come hell or high water, rain or shine, the games continued until its usual conclusion that culminated in a best of seven championship watched by people from all walks of life usually in the first week of June.

For the people to watch the game, they need to shell out one peso and fifty cents. A small amount for most but many just refused to pay the dues for unknown and various reasons. The court and the bleachers were usually fenced and enveloped with corrugated GI sheets to form a makeshift Arena and was usually painted with "Alkitran*", a kind of used automobile oil or grease to prevent some people especially the children from gaining entrance without paying the entrance fee at the gates.

The construction of these "great walls" was an exercise in futility for the organizers for how the children and some adults managed to enter the basketball arena without being caught or noticed and marked by the greasy "alkitran" on their body and clothing continued to baffle the organizers and observers to this day. All the safeguards and precautions by the organizers were no match to the old Filipino ingenuity of up- manship or in local parlance "abilidad." All this trouble of playing a cat and mouse game to avoid paying a measly one peso and 50 centavos!

It was during this formative years, when the legend of the B49' ers began to blossom. They became the "winningest" ball club in the history of the town’s summer league, winning a record of ten championships in their prime. A record that still stands and probably will never be broken on this basketball- crazy town.

Among all of the championships that they have won, it was the infamous” Replay Championship" that stood out and remain in the mouths of the B49'ers friends and foes alike. It was the Junior A Division Championship wherein they were down by six points with less than two minutes to play in regulation with all their starters in foul trouble when an ugly brawl developed instigated by the import* of the opposing team. The opposing benches were emptied and the people rioted. Play was halted and suspended. The next day, the organizers informed both teams that they decided to replay the game with only the time remaining in regulation before the ugly brawl erupted. The B49'ers refused while the organizers would not budge in their decision.

Unable to find a solution to the problem, the organizers decided to let the other games continue as scheduled. The championship contenders for the other divisions would eventually resumed the game the next night but the organizers soon realized their folly and regretted their decision when they soon find themselves in the middle of an invisible war of attrition of some sort wherein they would find their basketball equipments vandalized and smashed to smithereens in the morning. This usually occurred in the dead of night and it happened for four consecutive nights without apprehending the culprits no matter how vigilant they become. Of course, they have their own suspects for obvious reason but they have no proof to back up their claims and suspicions. The bleeding finally stopped when they decided to negotiate with the contending parties. Both sides agreed amicably to have the hotly contested game replayed from the beginning. To make the long story short, the B49'ers went on to win the championships 4-3 in a highly- physical and brutal seven game series.

Although the B49'ers never admitted it publicly, the people of Tiwi knew and believed that they were responsible for the series of vandalisms that occurred and took the infractions with a grain of salt that they attributed it to their youthful adventurism and bravado.

Life was so simple then, with no worries and a carefree attitude on everything. Aside from playing basketball, the B49'ers would while their time staying up late on the side of the pot holes marked asphalted national road while downing countless bottles of Ginebra San Miguel in endless drinking sessions at night. Once in a while when somebody would have extra money on their pockets, they would treat themselves to a lethal punch of GSM and Red Horse beer that always lead to a vicious hangover in the morning. In the course of the nightly drinking session, they would sang the latest slow rock hits of Deep Purple, Queen, Scorpions, Black Sabbath and the Eagles- the biggest and hottest bands in that part of the globe then. Richie Blackmore and Michael Schenker were the guitar gods long before Slash became famous with Guns 'n Roses with one or two of them emulating their playing styles on the old and heavily bandaged Lumanog guitar. As for the vocals, well forget it man, they sound like a broken record as drunks would have sound. But it did not really matter; they were having the time of their young lives.

And so the B49'ers would sang at the top of their lungs until their voices became hoarse and conked out in the wee hours of the morning unmindful of all the disturbances and noises they made while most of the people of the town were already soundly asleep or pretending to be asleep. In the course of the wild concerts and drinking sessions were the usual "kulitans*" that sometimes would turn absurd and rather ugly. But in the spirit of true brotherhood and being true to their vows under the spirit of the glass- that they would never fight each other even on worst occasions not a single fight occurred. They would instead bent their ire to some other things whether it is by hurling the empty bottles of gin into the air towards the direction of the nearby Police station wherein as soon as the bottles crashes on the asphalted road would scamper for home and adjourned the drinking session in the process or by simply putting the “No Parking” traffic sign or thrash cans in the middle of the road and on worst occasions, engaging the other group of youngsters in fisticuffs and pitch battles in the dark alleys of the town in the dead of night that would put the famous rumble in the jungle to shame. The people of the town attributed these to their youthful fire and spirit that they reasoned the B49’ers will soon outgrow. They survived all of their adventures, rebellious acts and brushes with the law in their hometown unscathed.

And so in those countless street battles and endless drinking sessions, their bond was firmly cemented where their true characters will be put to a real test when they finally decided to venture into the urban jungle that is, Metro Manila...