July 2024 – Pelota Press

Benny Bueno Picks up $10K Batch of Pelota’s & Makes Cancha Visit

Benny Bueno Picks up $10K Batch of Pelota’s & Makes Cancha Visit

Dana’s Jai-alai director of operations made a two-day visit to the Tampa Bay area yesterday that included a St. Pete cancha visit and a baseball game.

Benny Bueno made the trip to pick up a big box of pelota’s which are made in Tampa for use of this season that starts later this fall. The 100 goat skin balls he got will handle Dania’s fronton for the 3 month meet. At $100 apiece, they appear to be a good price, as that is the cost of a pelota we have seen mentioned over the decades. By contrast, the cost of a cesta has skyrocketed.

Accompanying Benny on the trip were his son Chris, currently on the Magic City roster, and his grandson Chris Jr., aka “CJ”.

After their stop in Tampa to pick up the pelota’s. they checked into a hotel room near the St. Pete Cancha and then headed over to the court for some action. Oddly, this is the only place Benny has strapped on a cesta over the past 2-3 years. He tried desperately to get a cancha built in the Miami area like the St. Pete one, but to no avail. The cover image on our website and Facebook site, taken by Alex, has Benny and Chris on it when they were here last time.

Benny and Chris didn’t last too long out in the heat. It was brutal, but after all, it was 2pm when rarely you find anyone outside at that hour playing jai-alai, tennis, soccer, lacrosse as you normally do during other hours at Puryear Park. Joining them in play was Seminole King, Alex, Mark Butler, and myself.

After that, the Bueno’s, Alex, and I showered and then headed to Tropicana Field to take on the Rays/Marlins game. The Bueno’s are huge Marlin fans, and we all were able to watch the game beside the Rays dugout along with 18,000 others. Ironically, while we were finishing up playing earlier, the Pinellas County commissioners approved the new stadium to replace Tropicana Field and be ready for the 2028 season along with 86 acres of an entertainment venue, restaurants, bars, hotels, a museum, housing, offices, and an amphitheater – all for $ 6.5 Billion.

One of the videos shown with this story is of Benny when he made a spectacular one-handed catch at a Marlins game several years ago when he was holding his grandson at the same time. The catch even made ESPN’s play of the day that evening. Now Chris, Jr. is 12 years old and is a baseball encyclopedia of knowledge. Last night he was wearing a Jazz Chisholm, Jr. shirt, a former Marlin star now lighting it up for the Yankees the past 3 days. Making matters worse for him, the Rays clobbered the Marlins.

Carballo, Lopez, Olharan out at Magic City, RonRon Returns

Jeff ‘Laca’ Conway Blogs

Carballo, Lopez, Olharan out at Magic City, RonRon Returns

As reported by Say HiLi a few days ago, there has been a few major changes at the Magic City Fronton for the season that starts Friday, September 6^th .

Carballo, one of the original Magic City players who learned jai-alai from “scratch” in 2018 after a brief minor league baseball career, will not be returning. Perhaps the most successful player to make the transition to a sport they never knew about, Carballo one of those that received a letter in the mail from Scott Savin about becoming a professional jai-alai player.

Carballo hasn’t fully recovered from a major knee injury he suffered. He is leaving to devote his career as a financial adviser, which he is partner within a firm. We wish him the best of luck and he had a great career – he threw hard and could complete with anybody. He was one of those guys you never could leave off your betting ticket.

Two of the world’s best players – Lopex and our buddy Olharan will not be returning. We were unable to reach Olharan and his buddy Danny for comment.

However, RonRon, who played from October 17, 2019 to November 23, 2022 is returning to play at Miami’s Magic City jai-alai. The family had moved to California two years ago, but he is coming back to play in the Battle Court games, while the family remains out west. RonRon is a true pro, and we are excited he is coming back. Let’s hope he has fully recovered from that serious injury he suffered about 3 years ago. The competition is a bit tougher now that it was a few years ago, but we are confident RonRon can compete.

Hormaetxea will also be playing on the roster also. He did play in recent years for the World Super Court tournament at Magic City. Hormaetxea did play as recently as May of 2021 at Dania and has been known as of the top players in the world.

Alex Goitia will be playing – yes – the one from Miamai and Dania Jai-alai – and he will be competing with his brothers Anaki and Julen at Magic City. Three brothers on the same roster! Last time I remember that was when the three Alou brothers all played in same outfield for the SF Giants in a MLB game back in the 60s.

The season runs September 2- December 13.

Don’t forget the USNJAC on August 30 and September 1^st and World Super Court is August 31 and September 1. The Pelota Press will be there the entire time covering the event.

Jai-alai Beer Getting a New Look

Jeff ‘Laca’ Conway Blogs

Jai-alai Beer Getting a New Look

Tampa Brewed Jai-alai Beer is getting a new makeover.

The Monster Beverage Corporation announced that Cigar City Brewing’s Jai-alai Beer is getting a major facelift.

As you can see, the word “Jai alai” is much brighter and larger than before and will be used on all their 12, 16, 19.2 oz. cans, and 6 and 12-pack cartons. The original cans a bottles had smaller wording, and images of a jai-alai cesta on the can. It is not known if that is the case here.

The popular IPA beer, started by Joey Redner (and son of the owner of world-famous Mons Venus), in 2007 is an India Pal Ale beer with 7.5% ABV and is widely available in 37 states in the USA and across the world. Iin 2022, Monster Beverage, owners of Monster Energy, a $7.1 billion a year corporation now owns it; however, Joey remains in charge of the operations. They sell 170,000 barrels a year.

The new look cans will be out sometime this summer.

Dania’s Casino Numbers Growing Expeditiously, Could Jai-alai Be Next?

Jeff ‘Laca’ Conway Blogs

After checking the monthly stats of the south Florida casino that Tiger posts monthly, one couldn’t help but notice that Dania’s casino numbers are growing at a phenomenal rate. When I mean casino numbers, I’m talking about their slot machine net revenue and cardroom gross receipt numbers, which likely is well over 90% of their total revenue. This is not counting food and beverage sales, jai-alai revenue from the 3 months of action, and the occasional concert/comedy show upstairs.

The backbone is slot machines, of course, and now that number has suddenly spiked 25% in April of 2024. Without confirmation, I believe that was their record month EVER – in net slot revenue, which reached $4,754,273 in Aoril. They have passed Big Easy (formally Mardi Gras) and are closing the gap within nearby Gulfstream’s numbers. That relates to $230 a machine in net revenue, a far cry better than the $70s and $80s I believe they were in during the first few years in operation.

Why the sudden increase? Twenty-five percent is a lot for any business, especially in the competitive gambling business in South Florida and being the closest facility to the Number One competitor – The Hard Rock Casino. Did they increase their marketing? Give away free cars every day? Why the sudden spike?

There are a couple of reasons for the sudden surge. The slot machine increase is likely from the new selection of high-end slot machines they recently added and appear to be quite popular with customers. Having a smoke free casino is a huge bonus, too. Even though the Hard Rock does about as good as a job you can in removing it, the smoke in the Tribe casinos is annoying.

The poker room numbers are way up because the new manager in charge is really good at what he does. And the General Manager of the operation loves poker and he’s a player. It always starts at the top, and yes, Brian Cashman, that means you too.

What about jai-alai?

They have been figuring out a way to extend the season from the current 3-month tournament season into a five- or six-month event. But unfortunately, at this time, that would create a problem with getting players because most of these guys can’t leave and be here that long. Plus, I am sure there are visa issues. Regardless, it is too late for this year of course (schedules are set a yar in advance with the state) , but Dania is talking about extending in the future.

What about additional improvements?

Theres a lot of property sitting there. What about a large hotel and a nice restaurant adjacent to the fronton/casino? Dania is right there with the Ft. Lauderdale airport and one of the largest cruise ship ports in the world. Millions of tourist are there every year and a nice big hotel would have now problem staying full at high rates, especially in the winter/early springtime. Ever try getting a hotel room in the area? They are usually full or expensive as hell.

Anywho, we still have jai-alai going three months when we all thought it was dead.

Rastock Win Streak Halted at 87, Then Injures Arm

Jeff ‘Laca’ Conway Blogs

Rastock Win Streak Halted at 87, Then Injuries Arm

Talk about streaks. Then talk about bad luck.

Joe DiMaggio’s famous number was 56. Rastock’s number is 87. Both records will never be broken.

We all know that “Joltin” Joe DiMaggio, the famous New York Yankee baseball star, once married to Maryln Monroe, hit in 56 consecutive games.

Over the past couple of months, former pro Rastock, who once played on the same roster with Bolivar at Bridgeport Jai-alai, has been making the drive from Orlando to St. Pete to play on America’s first and only public court on a regular basis – as often as 3-4 times a week. And he has been accumulating a lot of wins. A LOT. In fact, he had wrapped up 87 straight wins while playing in the “Chopped Liver League”, a group of about 30 players with mostly amateur experience. The fact that he won 87 straight games is quite remarkable – considering 3, 4, 5, or 6 post games and dependent on his partner – either a front or backcourter.

That came to an end Tuesday night when Rastock and Alex lost on game point at 14-14 to a team of Seminole King and Rick B. The other two teams in the game had a few less points. This was a shocking end to his 87-game winning streak.

Now talk about bad luck.

On the first point of the next game, he injured his right arm – inside of the elbow below the bicep but continued to play. He won that game and then played another game, winning that one too before announcing he could not continue. The pain was getting worse.

Right now, he is hooked up to a device called TENS – an electro therapy device as shown in the photo. I had never heard of it before, thinking it might be snake oil, but I looked it up on Amazon to see what it is all about. With nearly 100,000 reviews from one seller and a 4.6 rating, I looked no further. Perhaps this will help him.

Right now, the NJAA has him listed as day to day and will take the next 3-4 days off. With the 4^th of July tomorrow, he may have caught a good time to sit out.

We shall see. Good luck Rastock. Remember, you have 2 wins in a row when you return!