Renovations continue at Puryear Park in St. Petersburg as the park remains closed till Friday.
Here are some details on the project.
High fence repairs and new pads are being installed today. This will clearly stop balls from getting suck up on top or on the fence area as the pad on the far left had broken months ago. The pads will have two pieces on top overlapping about 8 inches and should be a huge improvement.
Kitz has been applied on the walls where all the white crap had be leaking out.
Ten gallons of new green paint will be applied to all 3 walls tomorrow and Friday. A crew was using wire brushed to scrape the lime and water scale off the walls and will seal the block to try and limit it in the future before they finish the overall paint job.
In the back court area, all the crappy tarps that are flying in the wind are being removed and there will be tightening of the perimeter netting.
With the “Scott King” Tournament about to commence this Saturday, America’s first public court will be undergoing another renovation to keep it updated in cosmetics and functionality.
Right now, paint cutting is going on around the line numbers and banners. On Wednesday, the major work begins. The torn sunscreens in the back will be removed and the upper padding on the front court will be replaced. Several balls get stuck up there, especially with one of the paddings gone. On Thursday, the entire court will begin to get a total face lift with painting of a different color green than is up there now. The “Matt” ball has turned the court into a white checkerboard basically with tape that comes off the ball on all three walls. Work is expected to be completed Friday in time for Scott King’s tournament Saturday at 10am. Scott himself is one of the contractors overseeing the project along with Eric Lancot, Paul Kubala and several assistants.
In the meantime, the court has seen lots of action with players from all over the country playing over the past few days.
On Saturday alone, 18 players were out there, including several ex-pros like Bridgeport Jai-alai’s (and many more places!) Rastock, Bridgeport Jai-alai’s Adam, Newport’s Ty Wilson who make trips on a regular basis from Daytona Beach and Orlando.
On Monday, there was a 10-hour marathon of action with about a dozen players out there including Tino, now a fixture at Matt’s court (and played pro at Daytona, Melbourne, Big Ben, Jasper, Milford and Bridgeport), Ron, a rookie of the year at Miami in 1982 and played at Ft. Pierce, Milford and Tampa. Also making the trip was Lou, an amateur from Tampa Jai-alai from the 80s. Bill “Okie” O’Connor also made a long-distance trip to join them.
Super Bowl Sunday, February 11th, marks the start of a new meet for the Magic City pelota games. There are some interesting changes that will be in effect for Magic City on Sundays early in this meet and here is some scoop on what’s planned.
Sunday, Feb 11 will be regular pelota games with the standard 8-games. There will be no Battle Court matches following the pelota games this day as it conflicts with NFL.
Now here is where it gets interesting! The next three Sundays (Feb 18, Feb 25, Mar 3) there will be a 5-game pelota performance prior to the Battle Court matches. The Jai-5 wager will encompass those five games. Three of the 5-games, games 3-5, are part of a special Championship Doubles Series which may or may not include some players that are Battle Court only players. After March 3, Sundays will be back to normal at the Magic City Fronton with the regular 8-games of high-energy pelota action.
Here is something new that’s added after the first five games on Sundays Feb 18 through March 3. There will be pari-mutuel wagering on games 6-11 which are the 6-Battle Court matches those days. Fans can wager on the outcome of the Battle Court matches, which I believe will be similar to wagering on the partido matches at Dania. Those Battle Court matches will be played as the typical BC matches are, three sets to 6-single points, first one to win 2-sets wins the match.
Sunday pelota action begins at 1:30-pm. The early meet for Magic City is Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 1:30-pm while later in the year for the Fall meet the days switch to Monday through Wednesday to not conflict with NFL.
All games every Sunday are open to the public for Live Viewing!
Don’t forget the upcoming Battle Court matches start this coming Friday night, February 2nd, at 7-pm EST! There is an expanded Battle Court roster with 6-teams now instead of 5-teams. The world-famous Lopez and four others have joined the BC roster. You won’t want to miss this!
Earlier in the current Dania meet a Chalk Talk poster (alq) brought up that payoffs were higher this meet than seen in the past and that poster was asking for supporting evidence. I took a look at the data and yes, they were at the time, and that led me to take a deeper dive into the statistics in general.
First, let me say, I am only the presenter of statistics. A Jai-Alai player owns their statistics. I don’t own them nor do I create them. Statistics are statistics, however they are facts. I can’t and won’t make assumptions as to why they are what they are, who the heck knows, perhaps only God and/or that Jai-Alai player knows. I can only present the factual statistics and they are what they are. However, in my deep dive of statistics I have looked at them in a way I haven’t before and often with some very simplistic approaches. Decide for yourself how to use them if you do at all, but I’m not a “bad guy” here and don’t make me out to be one. I’m only presenting the factual stats, and in a way you have never seen before I’m sure as you won’t find this stuff in any Jai-Alai program.
The first info I’m going to present here is doubles player ITM records by day of the week for doubles games only, hmm, that could be interesting, particularly if you find yourself betting and losing certain days of the week. Perhaps you will find your reason why here, or maybe not, but if so, you might consider an adjustment to your bet structure for certain days? This is not a team assessment for doubles, but an assessment of individual doubles player stats only. This analysis should certainly show which players are most consistent one would think. Be cognizant of the fact that Wednesdays and Saturdays include both the matinee and evening sessions, so those days represent a higher percentage of the doubles games played.
Here are a few interesting things to note from the above Day of Week ITM Chart for Doubles:
Urrutia, one of the strongest players on the roster and heavily bet, starts out the week slow with much lower than his average performance on Wed & Thurs – are you getting beat up badly on those days betting on him? I wouldn’t be surprised, the stats don’t lie.
Atain has an incredible 0.704 Doubles ITM on Thursdays and a very respectable 0.600 on Friday nights, however, he has a major dropoff for Saturday, interesting stuff.
Toucoullet has a very low 0.188 ITM on Friday nights, he’s already one who is probably on your radar with low performance, but Friday’s are the lowest.
Consistency (in alphabetical order), these 7-doubles players are most consistent throughout the week: Bixente, Cabanillas, Jagoba, Laborde, Oyhenard, Txanika, Zugaitz
These are just a few things that I noticed from scanning the Day of Week Chart, I’m sure you can find more.
When I had done my deep dive into the Dania Jai-Alai doubles game data, I was thinking about how players benefit from the low posts, pp 123, whereas the hardest posts to win from are pp 567. Then a light bulb went off, I have the data, look at the data! Certainly players perform better from posts 123 than 567 and the data will support that, even from looking at the Dania players from 2018 thru 2021. These days with random post draw, in effect since the late 80’s strike ended, all players get to play in all post positions. Now in the “olden days” as many of you probably remember post-strike, the best players were almost always found in the 567 posts.
I performed the low post-hard post analysis and the data was as expected, except for one outlier from the current meet. I even went as far to look at data from the previous Dania meets from 2018 forward for comparison. So in the next charts you will see everything doubles summarized by player, with ITM’s from pp 123 versus ITM’s from pp 567 and a ratio of the ITM 567 / ITM 123, which in all cases was well below 1.00 and I mean well below 1.00 (average is 0.60), except in one case. Again, I don’t own the stats, the Jai-Alai players own their stats, I am simply the presenter. Don’t shoot the messenger!
I could have looked at singles records, but that data is more straight-forward and those games are much easier to handicap, so I took on the tough assignment, doubles games. Hopefully this will help you with your Dania handicapping! Good Luck!!
Dania meet concludes on Sunday, February 25th.
Magic City Pelota meet starts on Sunday, February 11th.
Magic City Battle Court matches start on Friday, February 2nd. The amazing Lopez plays BC now!
Be sure to support all versions of Jai-Alai in the USA!
Ralph Amadeo was “The Voice of Tampa Jai-Alai.” He was mid 30s, dark, slick back hair, and a slight Chicago accent.
Mike Menendez, a schoolteacher by day, statistician and backup Jai-Alai announcer at night, (later became the stadium announcer at the Bucs games) was the second man in the announcer’s booth. This was Mission Control. The fronton announcers introduced the players, posted the scores on the scoreboard, alerted the fans of a good shot or outstanding catch, handled playoffs and communicated any other important message to the audience, like, “there’s a blue Chevy in the parking lot, your motor’s still running.” It was their job to train this young, starry-eyed neophyte.
I had just arrived at the fronton for my first of four April weekends as the apprentice public relations director of Tampa Jai-Alai. I would return to Gainesville each Sunday to finish getting my degree. But my focus now was to learn as much as I could and prepare for the start of the 1971/72 Tampa season, which would start December 27th.
Ernie Larsen, fronton general manager, was standing at full attention at the north entrance keeping a vigilant watch as employees entered the building. It almost appeared as if a salute was in order to the ex-Naval commander (not sure if he actually commanded anything, other than a fishing boat). He waved me into his office.
Ernie explained some of my duties: spend most of your time in the announcer’s booth learning the procedures, teletype the entries and results of the games to the newspapers, fill the brochure racks, field calls from the media concerning player statistics, and listen to him rail against Johnny Barker leaving the job in the middle of the season, which he would tell me each weekend, as if he had never mentioned it before. He even pulled out his 2-page letter of resignation and went through many of the paragraphs of complaints.
“I was reduced to merely a teletype operator and could not do my job as PR Director,” read Larsen from Barker’s letter. “You went back on most of your promises of entertaining the media and maintaining free passes to our VIPs,” he quoted another paragraph.
“That no-good SOB!” said Larsen about the newly departed Barker. I would nod my head in agreement with Ernie, still so thankful that Barker decided to leave, opening up my dream job. I paid no real attention to his complaints knowing full well this was not going to happen to me, Or, would it?
The announcer’s booth at Tampa Jai-Alai was perched high atop the back wall of the court. It was over 40 feet above the wooden floor which was the out-of bounds area. The booth was the perfect spot to watch play, because you could actually see the pelota (ball) curve as the players threw it at speeds over 150 mph. Watching from the rear of the court was far different from the side-view where the fans sat. There was no depth perception from those seats. Catches looked easy and fans booed frequently thinking players missed an easy catch or dropped it on purpose.
The booth was enclosed in fencing to protect us, with the far side open to the audience below. This allowed me, when not announcing or teletyping, to survey the cocktail waitresses, Tele wager Girls, or the many Jai-Alai player “groupies” that sat in the Loge section directly below us.
Ernie gave me a key to enter the players quarters, which was the only way to access the announcer’s booth. It was at the top of an internal stairway, the third level, just above a viewing level for the players that were not playing the current game. There was no other there!
The player’s quarters was the inner sanctum of a Jai-Alai Fronton. The door was always locked. Florida statutes prohibited anyone that was not authorized by the State of Florida to enter or exit one hour before the first game until one hour after it was over. Jai-Alai was the only sport in the U.S. where you actually could legally place a wager on a human being. Therefore, to protect the betting public and any perceptions of impropriety, the player’s quarters was totally isolated during the performances.
Yet, I had “The Golden Key.” I had to go in and out many times during a performance. I felt special, privileged, as all eyes would be on me as I exited or entered. I was on the “inside” and this was cool! Also, as almost everyone knows, Jai-Alai is “fixed.” Or is it? Undoubtedly, I would soon find out.
That first Friday night, with over 3,000 men and women in the audience, a full house, I watched as Ralph brought them to the pinnacle of excitement. “Great save by Almorza (he pronounced it Almortha in the proper Castilian Spanish), long carom shot SCORES! POINT AND GAME POST 1, ALMORZA,” he nearly shouted into the foamed mesh covered microphone as the crowd jumped to their feet in a standing ovation. Ralph had them in the palm of his hand, even those that lost bets would be applauding. Ralph was my idol. I had to learn to do this, he had such power.
Immediately after the game was over and he read the results and payoffs, announced the pari-mutuel windows were open for the next game, post time being in 8 minutes, Ralph dashed out of the booth. I wrote down the payoffs and went back in this small room at the top of the stairway and sat at an old teletype machine, which you would see in a very old black and white movie. I would type the results into that machine which would simultaneously transmit to other teletype machines at all the newspapers in the Tampa Bay area, including Sarasota, Clearwater, and Lakeland. They would run our entries and results daily in their respective newspapers.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was a player wearing a brown jersey, Post 7, with 47 on his front. I quickly glanced at a program and realized it was the young rookie sensation Bolivar. “Boli” was 18 years old and was beginning to dominate the competition at Tampa Jai-Alai. He would go on to be one of the top players in the world.
But, that night, he was mesmerized by me typing in the results into the teletype machine. He spoke no English. I spoke no Spanish or Basque. He would just sit there with a grin on his face. Little did I know, I had captivated the young Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams of Jai-Alai with my typing. He would come up and visit me often. This was his way of relaxing before going out on the court to face that 150 mph, deadly pelota.
I found that other players would come up to visit us in the booth, like Torriente, Salazar or Chapman. I thought they came up to meet me and chat. Then, I found they used our booth as a great vantage point for scouting the talent below, the talent that wasn’t on the court.
Now, it’s one minute before the start of the next game. Mike Menendez, grumbling under his breath each time he had to get up from his chair to announce the minutes left for betting, was now looking out the side of the booth for Ralph. Like clockwork, Ralph would bound back into the booth, get to his stool, and announce, “Ladies and Gentlemen, you have but one minute left to place your bets, jusssssttttttttttt a minute!” This was Ralph Amadeo’s trademark line. He would draw out the “just” so long that the crowd was almost begging him to finish the sentence. But it was like magic. People swarmed to the betting windows, he would dim the lights, start the march out music, and announce the first two teams on the court. I knew right then that this is what I wanted to do the rest of my life, be exactly like Ralph Amadeo!
So, where did Ralph go immediately after every game? And how would this cost the best announcer in the sport to lose his job. I would soon find out.
MIAMI, Jan. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The World Jai-Alai League (WJAL) recently held its Battle Court Spring 2024 Season Draft on Tuesday, Jan. 9. The Draft event unveiled the player lineups for the six teams competing over the upcoming 16-week season, including the addition of an expansion team, the Fireballs, to the League’s Battle Court roster and a fresh realignment of team owners for the upcoming season, starting on Friday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. The WJAL has seen a surge of interest in the past year, bringing on notable ambassadors, investors and team owners including Grammy Award-winning recording artist and entrepreneur Armando Christian Pérez, known as Pitbull, retired NFL legends Ray Lewis and Lawrence Taylor and retired three-time NBA champion Udonis Haslem.
World Jai-Alai League’s Warriors team and owners including NFL Hall of Fame legend Lawrence Taylor at the season opening draft event
“After a year marked by an extraordinary surge of growth and interest, we are proud to announce the latest lineup of team owners and the newest team of the Battle Court franchise,” said Scott Savin, chief operating officer of the World Jai-Alai League. “The next season promises to be more phenomenal than the last. With six new players, we are continually looking to raise the level of talent and the stakes on the court.”
Spring 2024 team owners include retired NFL legends, Ray Lewis and Lawrence Taylor, as co-owners of the Warriors; three-time NBA champion Udonis Haslem as owner of the Renegades; Chris Cote, the longtime producer of the “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,’ as owner of the Cyclones alongside Mike Ryan; K. Marie “La Gringa Más Latina” from TU 94.9FM and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Maffio as owners of the Devils; Lifestyle Miami and Mister Red as owners of the Chargers; and WJAL as owner of the Fireballs.
The addition of the Fireballs will increase the WJAL’s roster to 36 athletes, twice the number the league started with in 2018. The 2024 roster features a lineup of both American and international pelotaris, considered among the best jai-alai players in the world.
Battle Court Spring 2024 Season Draft picks: (Listed by courtside names)
Team Name
Chargers
Cyclones
Devils
Fireballs
Renegades
Warriors
Round 1
Zulaika
Manu
Olharan
Inaki
Goixerri
Douglas
Round 2
Iturbide
Lopez
Jairo
Foronda
Aratz
Nicolas
Round 3
Benny
Carballo
Urbieta
Amigorena
Goenaga
Manny
Round 4
Ubilla
Ikeda
Robin
Hernandez
Arta
Julen
Round 5
Bradley
Bueno
Roque
Cabrera
Ben
Correa
Round 6
El Barba
Flores
CRB
Jeden
Joseph
Williams
WJAL matches are viewable during the competitive season on Jai-Alai TV (www.jaialai.live), via the Jai-Alai app and at www.watchjaialai.com. Battle Court matches are available on DraftKings and BetRivers for wagering in 17 states including Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Battle Court gamedays take place at the Magic City Fronton’s glass-walled court at 450 NW 37 Ave. in Miami. Gamedays are open to the public on Fridays (7 p.m.) and can be viewed via live broadcast only on Mondays and Tuesdays (5 p.m.) from Feb. 2 through May 17. Battle Court games are viewable on ESPN+, Jai-Alai TV (www.jaialai.live), the Jai-Alai app (downloadable on Apple App Store and Google Playstore) and www.watchjaialai.com.
About World Jai-Alai League The World Jai-Alai League is dedicated to revamping the once renowned sport of jai-alai across the globe by modernizing gameplay, capitalizing on the exploding international sports wagering market, and delivering the sport through social media to a new generation of fans.
left to right: Marty Fleischman, first court presentation, Leicester Hemingway (Ernest’s brother), Jasa (one of the top French players), Ernie Larsen, fronton GM
Most spend their final two years of college pursuing their degree, preparing to start their career. I spent my last two years pursuing the pelota (ball). Nearly every weekend, I would convince my roommates, Mike Singer, Eddie Goldstein, or Herb Gould to make the trek to Daytona. Here was our perfect weekend: leave Gainesville at 6:30 am, play Jai-Alai for the allotted two hours, check in at the Indian Palms Motel on U.S. 1 which charged $10 per night (we split it 4 ways), drive over to the boardwalk on the beach to play our favorite pin ball machine Slick Chick, have a footlong hot dog and milk shake prepared by a toothless carni at the stand, put a dime in to watch the Dancing Chicken, go on the beach and body surf for hours, shower at our luxurious motel, and get to the fronton with fake IDs to watch the pros. The perfect day! That is, until one Saturday night Eddie, who was a year younger than us, got stopped and questioned at the north entrance. The rest of us had gone in the other entrance trying not to draw attention to him. Standing in the main lobby, we see Eddie being interrogated by the Chief of Security. Poor Eddie, he folded like a cheap suit. Couldn’t remember the name on his ID, nor the color of his eyes. Next thing we see, he is being escorted by the police into the back security office. Fortunately, I remember that one of our fraternity brothers who had graduated was the announcer there. I quickly had someone call him in the booth, told him what happened, and asked if he could influence his security personnel to free Eddie. He got Eddie sprung with the promise he would not come back with any more fake IDs. Realizing it was still early and only the first game had played, Eddie had to sit in the car for hours waiting for us. We told him that was the price he had to pay for confessing. I still feel bad to this day that we made him sit in the car. But, Jai-Alai does strange things to you. One of my frat brothers, Mark Einhorn told me he had a younger brother, Neil, who was coming up as a freshman and was an avid amateur Jai-Alai player. Neil had actually attended the North Miami Amateur School of Jai-Alai, which was taught by renowned instructor Epifanio, the same man who taught Joey Cornblit, the greatest American to ever play. Neil and I got permission from Tampa’s GM, Ernie Larsen, to practice at Tampa Jai-Alai on Sundays. The catch was, no a/c, no lights, just use of the court. The caretaker for the fronton would open the gates for us and let us in. It was heaven for Neil and me. We played countless hours of singles, just the two of us. We played until we dropped. Neil beat me 9 out of 10 games, but we could not have been happier. I now was convinced, I wanted to make Jai-Alai my career.
Sitting in Landmark Apartments, mid November, my senior year, I bought a Tampa Tribune to see read Tom McEwen’s column on the Gators. On page one, half way down the page, a headline hit me like a lightning bolt: “Johnny Barker Named PR Director of Tampa Jai-Alai.” In shock, I read on that Johnny Barker was leaving the University of Tampa as Sports Information Director to take the job at Tampa Jai-Alai. I knew that if someone was just beginning a new position, leaving a high profile job at UT, he was likely to be the there for many years to come. But, that was my job. That was going to be my career. Ernie was saving it for me, but he wasn’t. And, obviously he didn’t. I was lost. My dreams were shattered. There were truly no other executive positions available for a young college graduate at Tampa Jai-Alai. This job was it. And, it was just given to Johnny Barker, a man I had never met, a man at that moment I despised. I spent the last few months completely depressed. I couldn’t even bring myself to go to Daytona or Tampa to practice. Even though I was going to get my degree in Advertising, I didn’t want to write it, produce it, or sell it. And then it happened. It was the end of April, 1971. I had about 6 weeks left until graduation. The phone rang. Stopping our non-stop bridge game, I answered it only to hear the distinct voice of General Manager Ernie Larsen: “Marty, I have a job for you!” I asked him what he meant, still astounded he even got my phone number. He told me using some expletives that Johnny Barker had quit, with over a month left in the Jai-Alai season. “You can have the PR job, but I need you right now!” Larsen said as if he was still commanding a Navy frigate. What? My dream job is back? My life, my dreams..all right at my grasp But, I have almost a month to go until graduation, my parents invested in me to get a college degree, and I’m dropping out now? I explained this to Larsen. He insisted that if I wanted the job, he needed me now! This was the dilemma of a lifetime. How do I explain to my parents that this is what I want, the career that I want to pursue. It was there for my taking, but I had to take it NOW! I got The Offer! So, I promised Ernie I would call him right back, I needed to talk to my family. I called home, got Mom, Dad, and my older brother Sol on the phone. I told them about the conversation and they predictably said, “You cannot drop out of school!” Then, my brother came up with an idea, “Ask him if you can work the final 4 weekends of the season, commute from Gainesville. Those are the busy nights, he should be able to get by those few week nights. Tell him after this season, you will be there full time.” What an idea. Would he go for it.
I called Ernie back and explained that I was just too close to graduation, my family insisted that I get my degree. I, then, proposed the compromise idea. Ernie said he would get back to me. An hour later he called back and agreed, the idea would work. “Marty Fleischman, 21 year-old son of local Channel 13 sports personality Salty Sol, was named Public Relations Director of Tampa Jai-Alai.” This was now the small headline in the Tampa Tribune. It, also, said that I had replaced Johnny Barker, who held the position for less than 4 months. I now loved Johnny Barker. Why did Barker resign in 3 months? Much to my dismay, I would soon find out.
Part 2 A strange feeling was coming over me, my stomach began churning, anxiety and excitement flooded through my body. We were approaching Daytona Beach, having driven through Florida’s heartland… Palatka, Hastings, then Daytona. Those that have had the unique experience of ever playing the sport of Jai-Alai definitely remember the first time walking on the actual “cancha” or court. It was 8 am, the mysterious rear door of the player’s entrance slowly opened. An elderly Basque gentleman, with a look that resembled someone that had not moved his bowels in a month, impatiently waved us in. Luis was Daytona’s ball maker. He would allow the amateurs to play various mornings and give them practice pelotas. He never smiled. He never talked, but to utter some Basque expletive at the “pakete” amateurs. Heaven help the poor guy who had to go to Luis for another ball when the cover tore. I walked through the player’s quarters, my precious “Ernie Larsen” cesta in hand, and approached the entrance to the court. The local amateurs that were in line in front of me rushed out to practice first. Only 4 were allowed on the court at one time. There was no a/c, no lights. The court was illuminated by the rising sunlight through some side windows. Finally, it was my turn! I still remember that feeling, in awe of this enormous, 176 foot long, 50 foot high behemoth of a court. The granite front wall, this huge side wall, the ball sounding like a rifle shot each time it hit. I realized that the wall was almost 60 yards away, more than half the length of a football field. Looking to my right was the wire screen, separating the empty arena of about 3,000 seats. I imagined a full house watching me make by debut, but the only ones in the auditorium now were the janitors picking up all the losing tickets off the floor. Now, remember, I had only played on a court less than half this size… and with a rubber ball. So, this was it, the real thing… I was ready, or so I thought. Hesitatingly, I walked onto the court, stopping in the rear area. This was the “backcourt” position. I didn’t choose this, my cesta did. Larsen had given me a backcourt cesta, which is larger and heavier than the frontcourt baskets. Backcourters are usually the physically larger and stronger athletes because they have to hurl the pelota a longer distance. But, I should definitely have been in the frontcourt, since I tipped the scales at about 140 lbs. With no warm up or practice, I awaited the serve. “Nick” Nickerson, the top amateur and hardest throwing amateur at Daytona Beach served the ball. My frontcourt partner let it come to me. Thinking it would bounce like the rubber ball at Miami Amateur, I started running toward the ball to make my first catch and return.
Suddenly, within a split second, it was coming directly at my head. I hit the deck and the ball flew past untouched. I quickly found out the goat-skinned covered pelota not only bounced but skidded at an enormous speed (pelotas have been clocked at over 170 mph). This was nothing like rubber ball. The other amateurs grumbled knowing this was going to be a long morning. Later I made my first catch and throw. I think there might have even been a volley or two where I caught 2 consecutive balls. There was no feeling like it, not from any sport I had ever played. The few hours passed like seconds. The feeling of accomplishment, when making a catch and hitting the front wall on a throw, increased geometrically. But, it was time to return to Gainesville. College no longer seemed important. Food, sleep, or girls were no longer important. The most important thing in my life now was to get back on a Jai-Alai court and play again. Maybe I had, indeed, found my new career. But, how could I have known that a University of Tampa Sports Information Director, someone I had never met, would first crush my dreams and then make them a reality?
The diploma on the wall reads, “University of Florida has conferred on Martin Paul Fleischman the degree Bachelor of Science in Advertising.” It really should say, Bachelor of Science in Jai-Alai!
When I returned to Gainesville after that fateful South Florida Christmas break at Ronnie Aranow’s house, all I could think about was that crazy, wonderful, intriguing sport I attempted to play, Jai-Alai.
Of course, I was now in my prime college years, sophomore year, living in the TEP House, fraternity parties, girls, drinking (or other things). Oh, I forgot to mention studying. I was pursuing an engineering degree, but it was not pursuing me. I already had interned
at Tampa Electric Company two summers. I wore my white shirt, a Ready Kilowatt pin on my shirt, and a pocket protector. I was truly corporate America. Is this what I really wanted? Third quarter calculus and physics made that decision easy for me. After a dismal calc exam, I walked directly to Tigert Hall and transferred into the Advertising School.
Meanwhile, my father, being a local TV personality, the Sports Director on Channel 13 in Tampa, set up a meeting with me and the general manager of Tampa Jai-Alai. I had asked my Dad, (he was known as Salty Sol), if he knew anyone at Jai-Alai, because I needed my own cesta (the wicker basket). I knew he covered the pari-mutuels in the area and was hopeful he could set me up.
So, one weekend, I drove down to Tampa and met Ernie Larsen, the recently appointed GM of Tampa Jai-Alai. Now, this was Lt. Commander Ernest Larsen, Jr, retired Navy, sporting a tattoo of an anchor on his arm, clean shaven, and walked like he was inspecting the troops.
Meet Marty Fleischman. I was wearing bell-bottom jeans, a Nik-Nik polyester shirt open almost to my waist, and hair down to my shoulders. But, Ernie could not have been nicer. He gave me a tour of the fronton and took me back into his office. He said he heard I needed a basket. He then proceeded to this closet door, opened it…. THE MOTHER LODE. The closet was filled with cestas, 30, 40, maybe 50.
Now, realize, you can’t buy these baskets. They are hand-made in Spain or Mexico, perfectly woven to specifications for each player.
I later found out that most players give the general manager one of their cestas before returning to Spain each year. It was sort of a goodwill gesture, with the hopes that they will get another contract to play. He told me to pick one out, it was his gift to me.
As I was leaving, he asked me what I was studying in college. I told him advertising, but I had a few years to go. Ernie asked me if I had ever considered a job at Tampa Jai-Alai, like publicity director. He said, “Who knows, it could lead to you being general manager here some day.”
I left there with stars in my eyes, pelotas in my brain, and a cesta under my arm. Little did I know, that in the near future, I would pick up a Gainesville newspaper, read a headline that would break my heart and end my Jai-Alai career before it even started.
