On Wednesday, May 1, Arwind Santos will become only the second player to win a Most Valuable Player award to have his jersey number retired by San Miguel Beer during the jersey retirement ceremony when the Beermen face the Blackwater Bossing at the Philsports Arena.
“Dream come true for me. God is good all the time,” wrote Santos in a Viber message to Pinoystep.com.
Santos will join four-time Most Valuable Player Mon Fernandez, who won his fourth MVP award when he transferred to the Beermen in the 1988 Third Conference, as the only other winner of the highest individual plum to have their jersey numbers retired.
Fernandez’s jersey was retired during the 1995 season.
Aside from Fernandez’s No. 19 jersey and Santos’ No. 29, other great players whose jersey numbers were retired by San Miguel was Allan Caidic’s No. 8 jersey and Olsen Racela’s No. 17.
Caidic, who won the MVP award in 1990 while playing for Presto Tivoli, retired in Year 2000 and had his San Miguel Beer jersey along with Barangay Ginebra’s uniform, retired at the same time by SMC management.
Racela’s jersey was retired during the 2010-2011 season.
But there were several other players whose jersey numbers were unofficially retired and were seen hanging on the rafters of the Ynares Sports Arena, which was previously used as homecourt of the Beermen when they were still competing in the Asean Basketball League in 2013.
Among those jerseys who were hanging in the rafters of Ynares Sports Arena were the No.9 jersey of the late Samboy Lim, the No.14 jersey of Hector Calma and the No.12 jersey of Yves Dignadice.
Lim, Calma and Caidic belong to the same class of PBA Hall of Famers in 2009 while Fernandez was among the first inductees in 2005.
