Here are the entries on the board so far and some pics from Thursday night practice. To watch live click:





MORE TO COME AS TOURNAMENT PROGRESSES

Here are the entries on the board so far and some pics from Thursday night practice. To watch live click:
MORE TO COME AS TOURNAMENT PROGRESSES
The 3rd Annual USNJAC Tourney begins on Friday with the Master’s Division on Day 1 (10-am EST start) with finals on Sunday. The Pro Division won’t start until Saturday (11-am EST start) and concludes on Sunday (noon start on Sunday).
Magic City’s brother team of Douglas-Benny will be defending their 2021 Pro Doubles Championship title. Last year they conquered the favored Erik-Ladutxe team 9-7 in the finals, taking home 1st place prize money. This year should be even better with Ladutxe, known as Manu on the Magic City roster, having grown more accustomed to the Magic City short court since joining the Magic City roster at the start of 2022 and the young Benny having gained more experience.
The “amazing scoop champ” Douglas will be defending his 2021 Pro Singles Championship title. Last year Douglas defeated Goitia by a score of 9-4 in the Pro Singles finale. Goitia, now playing on the Magic City roster as Inaki, was injured in last year’s finale against Douglas. Inaki has been playing some of his best Jai-Alai at Magic City in recent weeks and Douglas won both late singles games in Pelota action on Sunday, August 14th, so both appear to be in top form for this weekend’s matches. Goitia (Inaki) defeated Dania’s Erik last year in the semi-finals by a score of 7-4. The competition should be even tougher for Erik this year should he accept the challenge.
A new serious contender for the USNJAC Pro Singles Championship title is Goixerri who joined the Magic City roster in early 2022. Goixerri currently leads the Magic City 2022 Singles Championship with 35-singles wins, an impressive 23.8% wins overall, and has been a super-star in late singles games, however, in the last month he’s been in a slump, winning only two of 26-singles games. Goixerri could easily be a huge threat in this tournament with some decent prize money at stake! Currently, Carballo is 2nd in the Magic City Pelota Singles Championship with 34-wins and Douglas is 3rd with 29-wins).
SayHiLi will be covering and reporting on the Pro Division results this year, however, will not be covering the Masters Division (amateur). We expect Jeff “Laca” Conway will be covering that angle with his site, PelotaPress.com, which is the leading site with info and support of US amateur Jai-Alai.
Contestants and match-ups for the 3rd Annual USNJAC could be released by as soon as Wednesday evening, based on last year, and will be posted on SayHiLi ASAP. This will be the first year where live attendance is allowed. Doors open for fans a half-hour before the start time.
Watch the event on watchjaialai.com this year if you cannot attend (not on YouTube JAC like last two years).
Friday night, August 5th, marked the first Battle Court draft selection event for the Battle Court II 2022 season which starts on Friday night, September 23rd where the Cesta Cyclones face-off against the Chula Chargers. The draft event took place on the Magic City Jai-Alai court at 6:45 pm with each of the 4-squad owners making the final decision on which player to draft to complete their 6-player squads. Each squad had previously locked-in 3-players from the BC I 2022 season and the remaining 3-players for each squad were selected via the draft process.
Here are the initial 3-players for the squads prior to the draft selection process:
Here is the draft selection order for the 3-remaining players for each squad and the players who were drafted by each squad.
Below is the final grid showing the Round 1-6 players for each of the Battle Court squads:
The selection process started shortly after the event started at 6:45-pm and lasted until the 12th draft pick which was announced around 7:30-pm EST.
Singles games for Battle Court H2H matches will involve Round 1-players playing against each other, Round 2 players playing against each other…..down to Round 6 players playing against each other. Doubles team pairings for each of the 4-Battle Court squads were made by the squads after the live coverage of the event ended, so those aren’t yet available for this article.
The event was broadcast on watchjaialai.com where H2H games can be viewed live on the internet or watched at a later time. Andrew Blechman announced the event for the on-line viewers while Magic City COO, Scott Savin, announced the draft selections to those in attendance. There will also be some ESPN3 coverage of Battle Court II H2H matches on Friday nights coming this fall. Here are a few other photos from this first draft event! Congratulations Magic City fronton on a great and professional event!
Andrew Blechman
Video and food photo compliments of Paul Kubula
Ft. Pierce Jai-alai is officially gone. The wrecking balls were out there in late July, and the beloved fronton which hosted thousands of games over the years, is nothing but dust.
Special thanks to Jacob Walden, President of the Professional Jai-alai Association sent us these pictures and is getting the museum (along with a few others), a hunk of the front wall to go on display.
Looking closely at these photos, you can get a rare view of the thickness of the front wall made out a granite with the green paint in front of it.
Miami Jai-Alai was dubbed “The Yankee Stadium of Jai-Alai.” I’m really not sure who came up with that moniker, but from a historical perspective, it seemed true. Miami Jai-Alai was the oldest facility in the U.S. The past players were legendary. The Yankees had Ruth and Gehrig. Miami had Churruca and Orbea. The Yankee rosters dominated baseball for years. The Miami Jai-Alai rosters featured the premier players in the world, seemingly unmatched by any other fronton. But, now I was in Dania.
Dania Jai-Alai was known as “The Palace.” It seemed to be a high end facility, almost snobbish. In the early years, you weren’t allowed in the lower lobby without a sport coat. Sports stars and celebrities made frequent visits. I even saw a picture of Babe Ruth standing with a cesta in the Dania lobby. They even had a special seating area in the middle called “The Royal Box.” Dania, also, had their past Jai-Alai stars.
“Egurbide (known here as Egurbi) was, by far, the greatest player ever to play on a Dania roster,” commented Richie Berenson, grandson of Richard Berenson, original founder of Miami Jai-Alai. “He was world class!”
Alex, another past star of Dania, was unable to sign with Miami due to his brother Solozabal inking a Miami contract. “In the late 60s, my father (Buddy Berenson, then in charge at Miami) loved both Alex and Solozabal,” Richie remembers. “We signed Solozabal. Brothers couldn’t play against each other in the same game so Alex signed with Dania.” It definitely worked out for Alex as he became a great Dania champion.
I began to see a completely different perspective joining Dania Jai-Alai. Having watched Tampa’s Bolivar become a force in the sport, I seemed to almost ignore the talent at the other frontons, with the exception of Miami. I knew the greatest roster ever was at “The Yankee Stadium.” Famous names like Churruca, Chimela, and Orbea were just a few of the names that made up this unbelievable roster.
But, now I see names exhibited on the Champions Plaque in the Dania lower lobby: Alex, Egurbi, Echaniz, Uribar, Boniquen, Felix, and, of course, Joey (who set wins records in every category and had his number, #37, retired at Dania). Dania did have some stellar players. And, they still do.
I had been close with many of the Tampa players, especially my “brother” Jose Solaun. I got to know plenty of the Miami players, too. But, I hardly knew this new generation of players in Dania. Plus, I was doubtful they were anywhere close to the caliber I had seen at World Jai-Alai. I was wrong.
I began to watch a young frontcourter named Arriaga, who seemed to be almost unbeatable, the way Bolivar was in Tampa. Arriaga possessed tremendous strength in his forehand throws (like Boli) and moved into precise position making the game look easy. Arriaga spoke fairly good English and I found him to be friendly and extremely cooperative with management. If he could avoid injury, his name would appear on that plaque for many years to come.
Another player in Dania I got to know and really like was the nephew of player manager Jose Arregui. He played under the name Arregui. Though short in stature, Arregui possessed amazing kill shots. He always gave 100% effort and became a fan favorite, as well as one of mine.
Then, I found out that we had an Olympian on the roster, Celaya. Celaya played for the Spanish team as Jai-Alai was an exhibition sport when the Olympic Games were in Spain. Celaya spoke perfect English and I loved the way he played the game. He was very welcoming to me in my early years at Dania.
While Miami had some hard throwing backcourters on their past rosters (Elorduy being one of them), Dania had two characters in the backcourt, Achotegui and Cuvet. I call them characters because they were. “Acho” was this dark haired, really good looking athlete, and he knew it. He had plenty of talent, but looked better on our billboards. Cuvet had amazing power and could dominant opponents. Both were French Basques, which sometimes caused problems with the Spanish Basques. But, Cuvet was a great partner as he won some tournaments for Dania due to his fierce competitiveness and raw power.
One of the first things I found out in my new role at Dania was that Steve Snyder and John Knox were very serious about having good players on the Dania roster. Signing Joey, after his contract dispute with World Jai-Alai, was a sure sign they wanted the best for Dania, even though the business was still in a tailspin. World Jai-Alai was shrinking and now held little leverage in signing the top players.
Could Dania Jai-Alai, “The Dodgers” of Jai-Alai, make Miami, “The Yankees,” just a past memory? Thus, began one of my first duties for Dania, setting up a “Dania-Miami Challenge” tournament between the two frontons. I now had to call my old friend, Dan Licciardi, and make it happen.
There was a big turnout this past weekend as several players from Miami Amateur Jai-alai made the trip up to play on the other Florida amateur court for the first time.
The fundraiser event to raise money to enhance the already “greatly improved and expanded” public court in St. Petersburg, netted over $1200 in donations to go towards it.
Over 25 players participated as a crowd of about 50 attended the performances.
On Saturday night, about 45 people attended a special party held at the J Laca Museum which included the entire roster from the N. Miami cancha.
The winners of the event were Tampa Bay star players Anthony Sutton and Scott King. Coming in second was Brodie and Corky (also of Tampa Bay) and coming in third was Jeraga and Angula of Miami.
There will be a rematch held at the N. Miami facility at a date to be announced.
The sport of jai-alai will be getting its best opportunity to showcase its sport tonight Tuesday 08/02/22, as ESPN 2 will be broadcasting a Magic City Performance in prime time tonight at 8pm for a full hour.
ESPN 2. This surprise press release came out last night: Click Link to see:
https://magiccitycasino.com/press_release/46