Plenty Cups

One Cup down. One Cup to go.

The Marianas Cup concluded last weekend. The Marianas Cup starts this week.

Here’s one way to look at: we are so blessed, we have not one Marianas Cup, but two Marianas Cups.

Actually we have three. The Marianas Kids Cup is this Sunday.

What in the wide world of sports is going on?

The original Marianas Cup started 17 years ago as a beach volleyball tournament and continued with spectacular play last weekend at Pacific Islands Club. Obviously the volleyball folks did not copyright or trademark their tournament name.

When the Saipan and Guam soccer organizations decided to field national teams in pursuit of the Marianas championship, they decided to go with a traditional soccer honor (who hasn’t fallen in love with the UEFA Cup? the World Cup? the CONCACAF Gold Cup?) in bestowing a Cup to the winner.

The CNMI women’s soccer team will play Guam tomorrow for the Marianas Cup, not to be confused with the one taken to Japan by Chie Iwana and Yoko Miki for winning the beach volleyball tournament last weekend.

Imagine someone calling up Chie and Yoko and telling them to return the Cup, “Hey, we need the Marianas Cup back for the winning women’s soccer team!”

Since the beach volleyball tournament has been around far longer than soccer, perhaps Marianas footballers could take advantage of the new times and rename their award. I suggest “Trench Cup”.

Aligning ourselves with the Marianas Trench opens all kinds of exciting opportunities e.g. designing a new logo. I’d go with a soccer ball over a 36,000-foot deep crevice surrounded by sharks.

What troubles me most is that the Marianas Cup beach tourney does not actually award a cup; it’s a regular ole trophy just like the dusty ones that dominate my living room. Yes, sports fans, the Marianas Cup is not really a cup. Go figure.

I always thought a cup is a cup is a cup. Now I know better.

Indeed, a Cup is different than a cup. To me, an old baseball guy, cup means two things: 1) the thing that holds coffee; and 2) the thing that protects a catcher’s nuts.

Soccer awards Cups. Football has Bowls. To me, that makes perfect sense. Bowls are bigger than cups.

Baseball and basketball give classical championship trophies. Tennis has the Davis Cup, which ostensibly can hold a lot of tennis balls. Hockey has Mr. Stanley Cup which in reality is nothing more than a tall bowl.

I think it would be appropriate if organizers of the Marianas Kids Cup beach volleyball tournament give cupcakes as prizes. Sweet. Of course, first place cup cakes would have more toppings than second place. And let’s call them Cup Cakes.

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