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CT Matt Tournament coming October 13-15th

CT Matt Tournament coming October 13-15th

Matt DiDomizio has scheduled a new Fall 2023 tournament, and everyone is welcome to sign up.  The weather is usually gorgeous that time of year, and the foliage change at its peak.    

Here are the details of the event:

Friday, October 13th – Spectacular “9” Citrus Style – Singles and Doubles Tournament

Saturday + Sunday October 14-15th  –  Quinella Style/ Mixed Doubles  – “A” and “B” Groups  – with the Finals on Sunday       

Also on Sunday, possibly some Partido matches

Some strict rules will be enforced this time. 

White Pants must be worn, or you will not play!

Fees—

Friday only   $50 – includes jersey/ T shirt and Awards

Saturday/Sunday only $75 – includes jersey/T shirt and Awards

Friday/Saturday/Sunday   $100 includes Jersey/T shirt and Awards

Must be signed up and paid by Friday October 6th. 

The Pelota Press is donating several jai-alai player figurines for the tournament since the Seminole Florida jai-alai court was never built as the contractor (Mike Kelly of Point West Construction) kept all the money that was paid ($50,000) and didn’t do a thing after the 7-year battle to get a permit was approved by Pinellas County.     

Contact Matt directly or you can reach out to me directly if interested in playing.

Usually, there is open play on Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday afternoon for the out of towners to practice on top of the regular tournament hours and is included in the fees.    

This is the best amateur court in America and looking for a great turnout!  

Laca

USNJAC Event – Recap with Full Results & Scores

Magic City Jai-alai just completed its 4th Annual USNJAC Event this past weekend.  Several amateurs, ex-pros and current pros all participated in the 3-day event in sunny, hot Miami Florida over a 3-day weekend festivities. 

We have all the complete results and scores as compiled by Straymar of Say HiLi.com. 

Puryear Parks star player Anthony Sutton, for some reason named the “Ant”, took home 1st Place in the Master’s Division, beating “Poppa”  Douglas I, 7-2 on Sunday afternoon to take home the $1,000 prize. 

In the Master Doubles division, the team of Rastock and Conrado beat DeCarlo and Lasa 7-5 to take home the $1,000 prize.  Rastock is now a regular at the Puryear Park cancha, while DeCarlo and Lasa play a lot in Berlin Connecticut at Matt’s place.           

This was the first time Connecticut amateur court owner Matt DiDomizio didn’t come home with a check from playing jai-alai, but he did come home with an extra $550 from winning at the slot machines, just feet away from the cancha. 

The pro event on Saturday featured some great jai-alai action.  The speed of that ball is hard to tell on TV vs being live, and I can tell you that ball was moving fast.  Especially Goixerri, who beat Manu 9-7 in a thriller to collect first place money of $7,500 on Sunday afternoon.  He also won the doubles championship with Aratz, for another cool $10,000!  Not a bad day, to say the least. 

We were also impressed with the play of “Alex” , DeCarlo, Tino, Joe P (Petco), and the man behind Jai-alai sports betting – Ari.

This year, players were allowed to practice for at least a two-hour session on Thursday.  Players in the past had complained about the lack of practice time to get used to the court, which is quite different than any other.  This practice session made a huge different in play the next day.  A very large group from Matt’s Court in Connecticut made the long trip to play also.      

Attendance was by far the biggest crowds the event has had.  I liked the revised layout of the seating, and the chairs were comfortable.  The only gripe we heard from players and spectators was the start times of the events, with 3 different times given out at the last moment for Saturdays start time.   Nobody had an idea what time it started on Friday when arriving on Thursday.   This information should be posted for everybody to know in advance.  We also heard from several people that were confused as where to watch it at.  Magic City’s website page on the event never changed at all and even included incorrect information on who won last years event. Information on where to watch it should be posted on the home page along with the hours.  Otherwise, the overall event, broadcast like production and announcing should be commended. 

Jai-alai will continue at the Magic City Casino at least thru 2025 and it appears there will be an event next year.  Special kudos to Scott Savin for putting on the event again and all the hospitality.  

CLICK ANY OF THE VIDEOS BELOW FROM THE TOURNAMENT

USNJAC-2023-masters-division – FRIDAY AUG 11, 2023

USNJAC-2023-pro-division – SATURDAY AUG 12, 2023

USNJAC-2023-all-division-finals – SUNDAY AUG 13, 2023

Laca

Magic City’s Main Event is this Weekend!

Magic City’s Main Event is this Weekend!

The Pelota Press will be there the entire event.  Action starts Friday morning and goes on all weekend.  Details on results with photos coming next Monday.  Fans are welcome to attend or watch live on the Ja-alai Channel! 

2023 U.S. NATIONAL JAI-ALAI CHAMPIONSHIP

The U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship brings the focus of an international sport to the Magic City of Miami, Florida. U.S. bred athletes take the court to fight it out in an epic battle of skill, speed and athletic prowess to dominate The World’s Fastest Game – Jai-Alai.

August 11 – 13

·  Friday 10am

·  Saturday 12pm

·  Sunday 1pm

Open to the public – Friends and Family are welcome to attend!

2022 WINNERS

Singles Champion
JAIRO
Jairo Baroja

Doubles Champions
ARRIETA & GOITIA
Inigo Gorostola & Inaki Goitiandia 

RULES & REQUIREMENTS

  • All players must be United States citizens [Photocopy of Passport or Birth Certificate required with Entry Form].
  • Players must be at least 18 years old.
  • Players must sign a liability waiver and image release form.
  • Players must wear an approved helmet.
  • Video required with Entry Form if player is not known to the Selection Committee.
  • The Selection Committee has final determination of entrants should the Championship entries exceed the available playing slots.
  • Practice time will be available.
  • There will be a 1-minute warm-up before each match.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT & PRIZES

MASTERS DIVISION

August 11 & 13

Open to amateurs and former professionals who have not played professionally since January 1, 2019 and professionals who are age 50 or older

Amateurs Singles and Doubles Prize Money

  • 1st Place: $1,000
  • 2nd Place: $500


Limited to 32 Singles entries
Limited to 14 Doubles teams
All matches played to 6 points
Finals played to 7 points
There will be a Playback bracket in Doubles only

PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT

August 12 & 13

Open to current professional players and former professional players who have played professionally since January 1, 2019 and professionals who are under age 50

Professionals Singles Prize Money

  • 1st Place: $7,500
  • 2nd Place: $2,500

Professionals Doubles Prize Money

  • 1st Place: $10,000
  • 2nd Place: $5,000


Limited to 24 Singles entries
Limited to 16 Doubles teams
All matches played to 7 points
Finals played to 9 points

Laca

Dania Casino & Jai-alai Happy with Past “Season”

As Dania Casino and Jai-alai is quietly putting together its lineup for the ‘23-’24 Tournament, we do know that the owners were quite happy with results of the past two-month “season”. 

Coming very close to breaking even, the new format gave jai-alai fans a whole new group of players to watch and wager on – and in prime time.  Breaking even might have even made a profit if you consider revenue from food and beverage, and the scroll over to the slot machines for a little action.  Compare this to the losing well over a million dollars a year with the year-round format. 

Next season looks promising – with jai-alai starting on December and running an extra month – thru February. 

But he most encouraging news appears to be their booming cardroom business.  Yes, the poker room is “killing it” as reported by Dania management.  The net revenue from their poker room has exploded recently, with the numbers up 58% from last year at this time.  June’s net revenue receipts were nearly one-half a million – $485,399.  This is up 139% from 2021, which was partially impacted by COVID-19.  Their slot numbers are better than they had been but are still far short of Magic City and Pompano’s numbers.  But being the closest gambling facility to the Hard Rock – just 15 minutes away – will always be an obstacle.  This is where jai-alai gives them something “they” don’t have.

What we really need is another tournament held in the middle of the summer – say mid-June to mid-August – to fill in the long gap of not having goat skin, primetime jai-alai.  Not everybody can make it down to South Florida in December/January with the holidays going on and super expensive hotel rooms that time of the year.      

How ‘bout it Dania??  We think it could turn a profit next time.  And keep jai-alai alive.          

Special thanks to Tiger for the continued posting of the State of Florida gaming numbers.  

Laca

Long Distance Travelers

Puryear Park in St. Petersburg is home to America’s First and only Public jai-alai court and has no shortage of players looking to play on it.  Even if it means a three-hour drive each way.

Yes sir, a three-hour drive (each way) from Daytona Beach is what former Bridgeport star player Adam Albrycht (pronounced “All-Brite”) commutes on a regular basis.  And he is not the only one.  Joining him on a regular basis also includes another former Bridgeport jai-alai player, Steve “Rastock” Rastocky; former Newport pro Ty Wilson; and amateur Eric Auman; all whom live in the Orlando area – about 2 hours away (sometimes much more with traffic).  Former pro Gary “Cachin” Doyle makes a two hour plus drive from Spring Hill; top notch amateur Anthony “Ant” Sutton also makes near two-hour drive from Spring Hill also and are regulars at the cancha.  Bill O’Connor, another long time amateur was also making a three-hour drive to play, while Alex “Amigo” Ruiz makes about an hour and a half drive from Davenport on a regular basis but does stay in town for a few days to make the most of his trip while looking out for his mother.          

Recently in a 15-hour period, last Thursday night, the St. Pete cancha was host to our only female player – Morgan , a former top female collegiate soccer player who graduated a couple years ago and is now a teacher, and her father Greg “Echeva” Kathan, a co-founder with Paul Kubala of the original Puryear park jai-alai from the late 1980s.  She can certainly hang in there with the big guys and loves her time out there on the court.  The following morning, about 12 players were out there including the above mentioned “Long Distance Travelers”.     

Talk about some dedicated players, often making a drive longer than they can play out there in the summer heat!   

Laca

Calder Jai-alai Appears to be History

Pull out the tissues.  It appears that Calder Jai-alai is history. 

One of the players that has been on its roster in its short “2-3 history”, “Rastock”, informed everyone at the St. Pete Cancha that Calder Jai-alai appears to be over with. 

Speculation had built that the former horse track would be forced to run a 40-performance season to maintain its casino license.

Calder had a 50-year run as a horse track before gaining approval to run jai-alai instead of the more expensive horse racing in 2018.  The horse racing industry tried to halt the change, but a Florida appellate court sided with Calder Casino stating that ‘Contrary to the appellants’ arguments, nothing….requires a facility to continue to same form of pari-mutual wagering activity that originally qualified it for a slot machine license, nor does this statue tie an ‘eligible facility’ to the same type of racing or gaming as it had when the constitutional amendment was approved, the judges’ opinion stated.     

On May 22, 2019, Calder Jai-alai opened in a newly built “fronton”, just feet from the main casino and facing the torn out grandstand that once held thousands of people.   Over 600 people attended that opening performance.  By the second day, about 50 were in attendance, and after that it was pretty much a ghost town.   The court was 111 feet long with an awkward serving area.  The roster included the hiring of the first female jai-alai player in the world – Becky Smith.   

Last year, Magic City Casino successfully sued a gambling package worked out by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with the Seminole Tribe to offer exclusive mobile sports betting and other casino enhancements. The package included the decoupling of jai-alai.  After 40 days, a judge halted the entire package and sports betting was immediately stopped while leaving the jai-alai industry in flux.  The Tribe has appealed the decision, and a split decision is very possible from a 3-judge panel that has been reviewing the case for about a year now.     

Somehow, an exemption was approved, thus allowing Calder Casino to continue operating its slot machines without having to run any live jai-alai games.  The savings on this would likely be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.      

It is unknown what will happen to the building, but whatever the plans are, it was fully designed to operate for something other than jai-alai.

Laca

Iñaki Osa Goikoetxea announces his retirement

As first reported by our buddy Perry on Tigers site, the great Goikoetxea, considered by many to be the best player in the world, has announced his retirement.   The following information was supplied by Goiko’s good friend and Cancun Jai-alai co-owner, Arturo Salas:

The point shooter Zumaiarra will hang the basket in February with 42 years and 13 individual championships

P.D. Amundarain Zumaia | 20·06·23

Iñaki Osa Goikoetxea, ‘Goiko’, has announced on Tuesday afternoon that he will retire from the tip basket at the end of this season, next February. The Zumaiarra, born in 1980, has announced the news in an act held at the Palacio de Foronda of his town, Zumaia. There they stuffed him with family and friends in front of a nourished media presence.

The act has started with a video of the best moments of Goiko’s 27-year career. As the same ended, the star entered with a flood of applause from the audience. Lander Eizaguirre, director of communications at the company Eraman, of which the punctuator is part, wanted to “say about Goiko what he can’t say.” He has angered the athlete and the person: “In each generation there won’t be one like Goiko. He stood out for his playing and his humble demeanor. It will be a long time to see someone like this. He’s a one-of-a-kind scorer; he’s left some plays I’ve never seen anyone do. He is a striker of almost a hundred kilos and almost two meters who has sometimes played as a defender. His place is at the highest in the history of the pointed basket.”

Goiko, for his part, has admitted to dropping out “at the best time” from his career and from the end basket. He has recalled his beginnings on the Odiet front of Zumaia. At just 16-years-old he packed his suitcases and went on his Milan debut. Then he went through the United States; first to Newport Jai-Alai, between New York and Boston, and later he arrived in Florida. There it went down, and it was shown in Orlando. In his thirteen years in Miami Jai-Alai was taken King. At 35 years old, he returned to Zumaia: “I went out with only a suitcase and came back having started a family.”

All that time he spent in America accompanied him to summer seasons in Euskadi, winning it all: individual championships, world championships in pairs…

The Last Dances

The last dances to Goiko before hanging up the basket. The farewell will start at his “beloved” Zumaia in the Master’s Series which will be played June 24-30. He will pass the fronts of Markina-Xemein, Donibane Lohitzune, Pau, Gernika, Biarritz, Hondarribia, Madrid and Durango to bid farewell to the fronts definitively at the Gernika Winter Series (from October 30 to February 11), the most important and prestigious competition of today. “I’m going to give everything in these games, and I want to enjoy them to the maximum. I wanted to leave it to the basket and not for her to leave me

In the end, Eizagirre and Goiko have given the news that the Zumaiarra, once he finishes his stage as a professional athlete, will continue linked with this sport, as he will move to be the sporting director of the company Eraman.

Laca

N Miami visits Tampa Bay Review 6/10 & 6/11

Several players from the N. Miami Amateur court made a return visit to St. Pete for another weekend of great action at Puryear Park. A total of about 25 players over the two-day event, braving the hot sunshine for over 4 hours on Saturday and another 3 hours on Sunday.

The event, in which a similar one also took place about 11 months ago, was organized by Belota. He did not play but was the official ref/scorekeeper for the event.

A crowd of about 30 attended each day, with random games played by a mixture of the Tampa Bay groups and several players from N. Miami on Saturday.

On Sunday, the top players were hand selected to play and included former Tampa pro players Daniel, Corky, and Scott King.

Trying to announce a winner of Sunday’s action would be an injustice as a few players that had advanced in the tournament dropped out after “heat exhaustion” issues . But the final team of Scott King and Daniel were the eventual winners winning 7-5 and 7-5 in the best of 3.

The court was spiced up considerably with a new coat of a lighter “Ocala” green put on the front and back walls. The overhead netting was also tightened up considerably, reducing the number of balls hitting it.

Overhaul, the jai-alai action was exciting to watch and play in. It was great to see several faces in the crowd that hadn’t been around a while.

On Saturday evening, a Jai-alai party was held at the Museum that included a Taco Bar – made from scratch with beef, pork, and chicken. Special thanks to my wife for another great meal at the jai-alai parties. The party started off with the Belmont race complete with live betting and watched in the home theatre. One lucky winner dropped $40 on the 3 to win and collected a hefty $356 for his winnings.

The blackjack table was full the entire night and run by former pro player and Puryear park alumni Rocco. Rocco has also been a professional dealer at three Hard Rock Casino locations.

Overall, a great weekend. Aware of the hot summer months being an issue with players scratching as the day progressed, Belota and Company decided to hold the next event in February when average highs are in the low 70s and not 90 plus with the humidity making it much worse.

Laca

N Miami vs Tampa Bay Tournament II June 10-11th

The state of Florida will have another grudge match as several of the top N Miami amateur players will invade Tampa Bay for weekend of great action – in less than 11 days from now – June 10-11. The event is being organized by Belota.

It’s hard to believe, but the same event was held 46 weeks ago on July 30-August 1st.

All players are welcome to sign up to play on Saturday, June10th. The event starts at 10am. If you would like to sign up, contact me via text or email and the names will be turned over to Belota for the scheduling. Sunday’s event will be invitational only to play, with the top players from both area’s competing against each other.

There will no admission fees, prizes, trophies, or food served (sorry pizza lovers!). Just good old fashioned jai-alai.

Among the players confirmed from the N Miamai cancha include Luis Angulo Peter Henry Jose San Juan Rubio and Jesus.

Sunday’s action will also start at 10am. The time frame of the tournament will depend on the number of players that sign up. We anticipate that number to be in the mid-20s to low 30s and players can expect to play in 4-5 games each on Saturday.

When signing up, please confirm if you want front or backcourt, or doesn’t’ matter, but there are no guarantees.

There will be a museum party again that night with live blackjack, beer, booze, and food. The event will start at 6:30pm. Last year’s party had some delicious homemade lasagna. that went down the gobbler very well. Please RSVP for the party (attendance at Puryear Park that day not required).

Laca
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