{"id":388254,"date":"2023-03-29T06:02:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T20:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=388254"},"modified":"2023-03-29T06:02:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T20:02:56","slug":"gen-bato-alvarez-soldiers-on-in-mainland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gen-bato-alvarez-soldiers-on-in-mainland\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gen. Bato\u2019 Alvarez soldiers on in mainland"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Basketball announcer Alvin \u201cGen. Bato\u201d Alvarez now works at a caregiving facility in Oregon. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alvin \u201cGen. Bato\u201d Alvarez is playing beautiful music with congregants of a caregiving facility in Oregon where he now works as an attendant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old Pasay City in the Philippines native said since arriving in the U.S. mainland to join his family late last year and finally getting a job, all that he\u2019s been doing is work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life has turned around completely. It\u2019s now all work and you just use your house as a place to sleep. On your day off that\u2019s when you do your household chores like cleaning and laundry plus quality time with your family. You relax by going out to dinner with the family, watching a movie, or going to the mall,\u201d he said in Filipino.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alvarez admitted he imbibed alcohol with friends almost daily when he was still on Saipan, but that\u2019s no longer the case with his new life on Oregon with his busy schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably when I finally have a group of friends then I\u2019ll go back to drinking, but only occasionally now because everyone is busy with work and everyone I know lives far away,\u201d said Alvarez, who bears a resemblance to Philippine Sen. Ronald \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa.<\/p>\n

A good consequence of his busy schedule and new no-alcohol lifestyle is he now weighs 30 lbs lighter.<\/p>\n

Asked what he misses most about Saipan, which was home for 31 years, Alvarez said it\u2019s the whole package.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss everything\u2026 my friends, the food, sports, hangouts, and me serving as announcer in basketball leagues\u2026of course I also miss the beauty and the simple life of the islands,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before shifting to badminton a few years ago where he played with his beloved wife and coining \u201cMusika\u201d during his stint as basketball announcer, Alvarez was a feared big man on the hard court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the teams he played for was Kentucky Fried Chicken where he suited up with the likes of Bruce Berline, Tony Raho, Andy Nepatial, Roger Valencia, and the late Warren Villegas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was also in the lineup of Bud Ice in the Centennial Basketball League, Aquarius Hotel in the inter-hotel league, and POWER in the UFO league. Among his teammates in those squads were Boy Garcia, June Alipio, Boyet, Suing, Jeff Garcia, Rene Pe, Ed Palma, Bogs Dayrit, and the late Pasky Peleno.<\/p>\n

The lone championship he won on Saipan was when he was with Team Pepsi in the Shirley\u2019s Coffee Shop league where he joined forces with the likes of Jojo Garon and Kiko Sarmiento.<\/p>\n

His message to all basketball fans on Saipan is \u201ckeep on ballin\u2019 and enjoy the game and thank you to everyone who supported me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarez, made special mention of his adopted family on the island, among them the families of Jojo and Merlie Savellano, Boyong Dela Rosa, Lito and Malou Mendoza, Ding Ordonez, Shirley Kim, Anette Ta, Roger and Celia Vales, EIlie Betchay Garcia, Billy and Loida, Kuya Boy and Violy Ching, his DLX and Eagles family, Blu Haus family, DFS airport staff, badminton family, and \u201call my local friends\u2026I miss and love you all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alvin \u201cGen. Bato\u201d Alvarez is playing beautiful music with congregants of a caregiving facility in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":388230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}