San Miguel, Gins to retire Caidic's jersey

If you're an Allan Caidic fan and still hoping the former UE King Warrior will choose to play for even one more year in the PBA, forget it.

Caidic stressed he has retired for good and he's now ready to concentrate on calling the shots for Barangay Ginebra in the coming PBA campaign.

San Miguel and Ginebra officials, meanwhile, said they are set to make arrangements with the PBA Commissioner's Office regarding their official announcement of Caidic's retirement.

Their plan is to hold the ceremony either during the 26th season opener featuring Ginebra versus Red Bull or during the first San Miguel-Ginebra match this season.

Both San Miguel and Ginebra intend to retire Caidic's No. 8 jersey, making him only the third PBA player given such an honor. Only Bogs Adornado's No. 33 Alaska shirt and Ramon Fernandez's No. 19 San Miguel uniform have been retired since the league's birth in 1975.

Adornado, a three-time MVP awardee, was feted in 1988 while Fernandez, a four-time MVP winner, six years later.

Caidic might have played his best years with the Great Taste-Presto ballclub but there's no doubt that he was of tremendous help to San Miguel's cause in his six-year stint with the SMC franchise.

The 6-foot-2 deadshot won four championships as a player, two of which with San Miguel in the 1993 Governors' Cup and the 1994 All-Filipino. He made it to the Mythical Selection in those years.

And although he started out his PBA career as a Great Taste Coffee-maker, Caidic can be considered a true-blooded SMC stalwart since he spent much of his amateur days playing for SMC teams, including Lagerlite and Northern Consolidated Cement.

He was with Chip Engelland, Jeff Moore, Dennis Still, Hector Calma and Samboy Lim in the all-amateur NCC squad which won the 1985 Reinforced Conference crown.