For the first time ever, a large group of N. Miami amateur players are coming up to play at the St. Pete cancha this weekend for a big fundraiser event.
The tournament is being put together by Jon “Belota” Morin, currently a player on the St. Pete “roster”. The fundraiser is being held to raise more cash to further enhance the playing experience at America’s first public court.
The overhead protection netting over the court will need raising up and work on the front wall and above padding will need additional work.
The cancha is the first and only public jai-alai court in America and opened in 2008. Last year, additional funds were raised to expand the court and after a long 6-month period, the court reopened in December of 2021. Under the direction of our contractors, Scott King and Eric Lanctot, the court is now one of the best amateur facilities in the world.
The players from the event are all making contributions. The event is being held at Puryear Park this weekend. There will be drinks, food, and free programs available.
It’s been a little slow in the Jai-alai world and this story doesn’t really have anything to do with our sport, but it is gambling related, and I wanted to get this out there.
By now, as you know, the Mega Million lottery has passed the $ ONE BILLION mark going to the winner of the jackpot. This is the third time in the twenty-year history that the jackpot has surpassed that magical number. Not one ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night, so the new drawing will take place Friday night, July 29th. The 11pm drawing will be the thirtieth in the jackpot run which began on April 19th.
The record payout of $1.537 billion was claimed in South Carolina on October 23, 2018 and remains as the world’s largest lottery prize ever won on a single ticket. Interest in the lottery has drawn unprecedented traffic with the website going down for over two hours Tuesday night.
The odds of winning this on a single ticket are 1/302.5 million, but the real winner is Uncle Sam. Most winners elect to claim all the money in one immediate sum versus an getting an annuity of 30 payments over 29 years. That payment would be $602.5 million, but the federal tax will take out another $144.6 million. Doesn’t sound fair, does it? No one lets us deduct money every year we lose money gambling on the lottery, slots, jai-alai or sports betting.
But this lottery news reminded me of a movie I watched a couple weeks ago. I don’t watch movies too often, but when I do, it’s to watch a movie based on a true story. I’ve watched just three movies in a theatre in the past 20-25 years and those were Moneyball, Richard Jewell and Black Mass. All obviously true stories.
The movie I watched is called Jerry & Marge Go Large. I thought the name of it was kind of stupid, until I watched it and realized what an amazing couple they were – and no wonder why they named the movie after them. It was released on the new streaming channel Paramount+ on June 17, 2022. It is based on a true story of a guy that figured out how to legally win a state lottery thru a mathematical loophole. Jerry Selbee had just retired from 42 years as a production line manager for Kellogg’s in a small Midwest town. He was bored with nothing to do until he studied the payoffs in the lottery game called “Winfall”. While reading the fine print, he noticed that the game had a unique feature that was called a “rolldown”. Unlike other high-paying games such as the Mega Millions mentioned earlier, the jackpot keeps building until someone hits all six numbers and wins the big prize. But in this game of Winfall, if the jackpot reaches the top prize of $5 million, and no one matched all six numbers, all the money is rolled down to the winners who matched fewer numbers. Mr. Selbee realized that he was guaranteed to win money if he bought enough tickets.
We don’t want to spell the beans on how this turned out, but the consortium he put together quickly netted them $26 million and an appearance on 60 Minutes in 2019. The distribution of the funds makes this a heartwarming story and is a must watch movie if you like this kind of stuff about mathematical geniuses and gambling. Maybe Jerry could figure out a way to win the billion dollars Friday night?
You can download Paramount+ for free for seven days as a trial without turning over any credit cards or information. The movie is only 96 minutes long and is more like a comedy-draw film that will keep your laughing and cheering especially when Jerry has a run-in with some smartass college kids. * * * *
Twelve years ago, Matt DiDomizio saved any form of jai-alai in Connecticut by building an amateur court in Berlin. A couple of years before that, Paul Kubala did the same thing on the west coast of Florida by lobbying the City of St. Petersburg to construct America’s first public court. Last year, Dania jai-alai announced they were closing shop after Florida legislators approved the decoupling of the sport while allowing parimutuel facilities to keep their other forms of gambling going such as slot machines and poker. That would have been the last remaining full size, goat-skin fronton in America, leaving “short court” Magic City as the last place to watch professional jai-alai.
The ancient Basque sport is still of life support, but there is still hope. Dania Casino earlier this year announced they were reopening for two months in December and January with a full roster and parimutuel wagering. The institution may see its 70th anniversary after all. Matt retired as being a mailman in his post pro jai-alai last year, and now devotes fulltime efforts on his cancha. The St. Pete court got a huge makeover last year and is now an excellent amateur facility with visitors coming hundreds of miles just to play.
Meanwhile, down in Miami, Magic City’s COO Scott Savin announced that they were committing to a 6th season to their unique version of rubber ball, small court jai-alai. But as he told Mark Saxon of USBets recently, the owners of the highly successful racino are going to have to start seeing a profit to keep jai-alai alive beyond 2023.
Savin told Saxon in the interview that “The owners give me a lot of latitude and they’ve been great about it. As long as we are increasing revenues, they’re good to go with it. If we stagnate or drop, they would tell me, and I would agree with them, that this was a wonderful experiment that didn’t go where we wanted it to go. But right now, everyone’s enthusiastic that we’re still very much in the growing phase and everything looks like it’s unfolding positively.”
Savin was the one that came up with the idea of opening jai-alai as an alternative to running dog racing at what was previously called Flager Greyhound Park. Dog racing had been running there since 1932 but it was costly to operate, and it took up a lot of land. There was a seldom known clause on the books that allowed parimutuel facilities to switch from dog or horse racing to jai-alai. Pompano Park was about to do the same thing a couple years ago by switching from harness racing to jai-alai. Plans were already in place for a newly constructed fronton. Calder did the same thing by opening their “fronton” and ditching horse racing that was actually being held at Gulfstream. They converted a second-floor concert hall into a condensed jai-alai court with glass walls due to weight issues a traditional court made of granite and concrete blocks would have presented. Savin had previously been involved with Dania Casino and apparently fell in love with the sport like the rest of us have. Ironically, Dog racing was banned in the state of Florida after animal rights activists got it on the ballot that was easily passed by the public in a referendum. But the jai-alai court was already operating at the time. Magic City still had to option to phase out jai-alai at that time because they were still operating “legally” as a dog track, but they elected to keep it going. Then jai-alai was later decoupled but the jai-alai action continued – even with longer seasons and much more experienced players.
As one of the most successful racinos in the Broward-Dade area in terms of slot machine revenue, Magic City certainly has the resources, and from what we have heard, the profits are enormous.
But changes have been on the way in the way they continue to operate the jai-alai action. It is no secret that parimutuel wagering on jai-alai is no longer a money maker like it was for decades before. Dania has been losing millions over the years with their jai-alai operation. Magic City is no different. Their players are paid a yearly salary and are offered generous bonuses for wins, places, shows and for end of year totals. A top player can easily make six figures a year. They even hold tournaments yearly for amateurs and ex-pros who have not played in years with total prizes of over $20,000. When Magic City first opened, many jai-alai loyalist were furious. They did not care at all for the short court, the glass walls, and the use of a rubber ball. The rubber ball had to happen as the real pelota – harder than a golf ball and covered with two layers of goat skin – was penetrating the front wall glass around the “seams” and causing the panels to crack. It certainly didn’t sound like jai-alai either when the ball hits the front wall. And as Mark Saxon cleverly wrote in his article to USBets- “Savin’s group has altered the rules enough to make the Basque inventors from the late 19th century roll over in their graves”.
Right now, Magic City Jai-alai appears to be in a transition period that might not make jai-alai loyalists in Florida and Connecticut too happy. The parimutuel wagering format has been cut back from 5 evenings and a couple of matinees a week down to just 3 afternoons – in the odd days and times of 1:30pm on Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays. At 5pm on those same days, a head-to-head format takes place with fix odds betting allowed in just seven states thru a site called BetRivers Sportsbook & Casino. You can bet on a team to win just like you could bet on the Cowboys or any other sports team. It’s a best of 3 with the format just like in tennis. It’s exciting and fast-paced. But it is not available in Florida and Connecticut and might never be with Connecticut outlawing jai-alai gambling and the fact that Magic City were the ones that sued successful and shut down sports betting in Florida. There had been an exclusive agreement with the Seminole Tribe that anyone in the state of Florida could place sports bets on the phone. It was simpler than ordering a pizza. A judge stopped it after it had legal for about a month. While it’s being appealed, nothing will be resolved until next year – at the earliest. The argument is that the better would have to be on tribal property in order to place the bets, not using their phones offsite that go to a server on the tribal property. There is also an issue with another group contesting it that sports betting is a “common game” found in casinos and must pass a recently approved voter amendment that requires a statewide vote with 60% approval for any future gambling top take place.
No one knows how well the sports betting format has been going but Savin did tell US Bets that wagering is up 30% this season and that the sport has moved into BetRivers’ top 10 in handle – ahead of sports like rugby, darts and Major League Lacrosse. It is just slightly behind the Canadian Football League.
Why is the sports betting being held only on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesdays at the weird hour of 5pm? Because there is very little competition in that time period. There is a certain number of gamblers out there in the USA that want to gamble at that time, and generally there are no horse races or sporting events being held at that time. Savin had mentioned in the past that Chinese Ping-Pong had a decent betting audience because of the lack of competition at those hours.
Scott Savin has even more plans for jai-alai. They are looking into a “league” expansion. Inquiries from interested investors from Las Vegas and foreign entities have looked to expand the leagues footprint. Savin dreams of an Eastern Conformance competing at the Magic City fronton and a Western Conference competing in Las Vegas with the winner playing in something like the “Super Bowl” of jai-alai.
Savin also envisions growth in the sport in selling teams for $100,000 that compete in the “Battle Court” Season that will start in September. A draft is expected to be held next month where the new owners call all the shots. The winner of Battle Court gets $50,000 in prize money, plus whatever revenue sharing is handed out. Sports betting? Broadcasting revenues? There is a potential if it takes off.
During the firsts season ownership was offered, two of the four teams were “bartered” to a couple of media companies for free publicity. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz was one of them. In a nice gesture, the prize money will go to a charity of their choice.
Will this all be successful?
“That’s what everyone is clinging to, with a wide-eyed optimism for what the sport potentially could be,” Savin said. “But right now, everyone’s enthusiastic that we’re still very much in the growing phase and everything looks like it’s unfolding positively” he told Saxon.
Less then a month away now is the Magic City’s 3rd annual National Jai-alai Championship to be held in Miami, Florida. An overwhelming number of players have signed up at a free crack to win some of the $2,800 up for grabs in prize money.
The event will take place over 3 days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday and will feature a Masters Division and a Professional Tournament.
Masters Division
The Master’s division is open to amateur and former professional players who have not played professional since December 21, 2016, and professionals who are age 50 and older. The event will be held on Friday and Sunday for the Master’s with a first place finish winners collecting $1,000 in singles and in doubles with second place finishers collecting $500 in both singles and doubles.
There is a limit of 28 singles entries allowed and 14 doubles entries allowed with games played to 6 points and the finals to 7 points.
The finalists in singles and doubles will automatically be entered in the Pro Tournament Division.
Professional Tournament
The professional tournament will beheld on August 20 and 21st and is open to current professional player and former professional players who have played professionally since January 1, 2017, and professionals who are under the age of 50.
Here the prize money is a walloping $10,000 in prize money for first place and $5,000 for second place.
This is limited to 24 singles entries and 24 doubles teams with games played to 7 points and the finals played to 9 points. There will be a Playoff bracket in Doubles only.
The event is open to the public with no restrictions or masks required for the first time in its 3-year history.
We will have the list of participants in another week or so as rosters are still being fine-tuned.
A couple of readers tipped us off on a listing on eBay of perhaps the most unusual jai-alai helmet ever made. It was a combo package consisting of an old jai-alai cesta and a helmet. It’s not the old jai-alai cesta that really mattered. It was the helmet. It’s certainly one-of-a-kind.
It appears to be made from the same materials that a jai-alai cesta is. And believe it or not, it’s very durable, too. I believe it could hold up against a Belota fast ball off the skull without too much damage being done.
Inside the helmet is a liner and straps to put on and play with. But it won’t be used for playing. It will go into the J Laca Jai-alai Museum, perhaps next to the most photographed item in there – the Sea Cow Leo 2.0 cesta. Juice and Rastock will need to get back in there and retake their photos!
Dania Jai-alai is officially going to reopen this year – starting December 1st for a two-month season. The State of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation – Division of the Pari-Mutual Wagering, has issued the license to conduct pari-mutuel wagering on the game of jai-alai in Dania, Florida.
The season starts with an evening performance on Thursday, December 1st and concludes Sunday, January 29, 2023.
Performances will run Wednesday thru Sundays with action in the evenings Wednesday thru Saturday and matinees on Saturday and Sunday, meaning the good old-fashioned twin-bill on Saturday’s – just like before. Hooray! Prime time jai-alai – and you can bet on it!
Management is working on getting a roster of around 24 players and nothing as been finalized yet. Neither has the possibility of high-definition broadcast video that would replace the “1980s” version still being used today. But who’s complaining? Dania Jai-alai may get to see its 70th anniversary after all.
Like Magic City, we all need to support Dania jai-alai to keep it going. There are a couple good things going here – Magic City will be closed the two months that Dania is open, so there will be no overlap of the two remaining frontons in the United States. Dania will also be open during the holidays with a matinee performance on Christmas Eve, but no performance that evening or Sunday – Christmas day. On New Year’s Eve – Saturday – there will be a matinee performance only. There will be a New Year’s Day matinee on Sunday. For the past ten years or so, Dania had been closed completely during the last couple of weeks in December. Traditionally, Florida pari-mutuels all did very well during those two weeks with lots of tourists from up north in town.
The Florida “fiscal” year for parimutuel’s runs July 1st 2022 thru June 30, 2023, so this will be on the only time Dania jai-alai can be open and excepting bets thru the next 13 months.
The Pelota Press will keep you updated on full details as they develop.
Puryear Park “alumni” Rocco was recently in the news for being the only former jai-alai player in history to become a jockey agent.
Rocco, who named himself after his grandfather’s name, learned to play jai-alai as a teenager off the walls of a movie theatre on Dale Mabry in Tampa and then playing a few years at Puryear Park. As mentioned in the story, a stranger one day gave him a cesta, and to this day Rocco has no idea who that person was.
It led to a jai-alai career that started over ten years ago on March 9, 2012, in Orlando under the name of “Roco”. Have no fear, former Tampa player “Corky” was on that roster under the name of “Korky”. Another former Puryear Park alumni “Sebio” was on that roster as well as a comeback by another former Tampa player, and current Puryear Court player – Scott King. Eric Pignataro later played on the Dania jai-alai roster as well as Ft. Pierce and Calder. In between jai-alai gigs, he became a dealer at the Hard Rock in Tampa before taking up an offer to head to Sacramento California for the opening of The Hard Rock Casino. However, Rocco and the State of California (politicians and the people in general) did not get along and he boogied out of there as soon as his lease expired and headed back to the Tampa Bay area.
The article takes over from there and you can view it by clicking this link.
The National Jai-alai Association completed its first week of action of its Tuesday Night Spring League March 22nd with 14 players participating and a crowd of another 15 or so attending. Seven games were played all to 10 points, single scoring. Here’s are the format and scoring works:
There are a total of 14 players (down from the original 16) with 7 in the front and 7 in the back. Trophies and prizes will be given to the top three finishers in both the front and the backcourters.
The frontcourt players will play with each of the backcourt players with roughly the same number of games over the 9 weeks of action, and vice versa.
Each player will play 5 games a night, so there will be two players that they did not play with in the previous week on next week’s performance. In the end, it will balance out for everyone.
Once 10 points is obtained the game ends. All players will receive the number of points they had at that time.
The winner will receive the 10 points and obtain a bonus of 3 points for the win.
The second-place team will receive 2 bonus points and the 3rd place team will receive 1 bonus point.
In case of ties, a one-point playoff will he held, and in that first performance we had several playoff points played.
At the end of the 9 weeks, all the points will be tallied, and winner announced.
Only the top 8 weeks of action are counted for each player, so if you had a bad week or missed a performance, you won’t have to worry about it.
Week one’s action started at 6:03pm and ended at 8:09pm. The event went off well for its first week, but a little tinkering will be required to speed it up a little more. A few players had problems with the darkness in the last two games as sunset was at 7:43pm, but the sunsets will be later as the weeks roll by and it shouldn’t be an issue.
Updated scores and next week’s entries are included here:
WEEK 1 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 18:03:39 Ended: 18:23:49 Alex/Thomas 8 Show Ricky/Chip 10 Win Mike/Zoltar 5 Oconnr/Garby 9 Place Cachin/Laca 6
Game # 2 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 18:27:34 Ended: 18:40:14 Linard/Chip 2 Alex/Zoltar 3 Place Ricky/Garby 10 Win Mike/Laca 3 Show Oconnr/Leo 1
Game # 3 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 18:43:38 Ended: 18:59:14 Cody/Zoltar 4 Linard/Garby 5 Show Alex/Laca 5 Place Ricky/Leo 1 Mike/Anthny 10 Win
Game # 4 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 19:02:08 Ended: 19:16:27 Cachin/Garby 5 Place Cody/Laca 2 Linard/Leo 2 Alex/Anthny 10 Win Ricky/Thomas 5 Show
Game # 5 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 19:19:22 Ended: 19:36:47 Oconnr/Laca 6 Place Cachin/Leo 5 Cody/Anthny 10 Win Linard/Thomas 5 Alex/Chip 5 Show
Game # 6 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 19:41:21 Ended: 19:53:24 Mike/Leo 5 Place Oconnr/Anthny 10 Win Cachin/Thomas 2 Cody/Chip 2 Linard/Zoltar 3 Show
Game # 7 to 10 points 03-22-2022 Start: 19:55:48 Ended: 20:09:06 Ricky/Anthny 5 Show Mike/Thomas 2 Oconnr/Chip 2 Cachin/Zoltar 6 Place Cody/Garby 10 Win
Week 2 Entries 03/29/22
WEEK 2 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 18:00:36 Ended: 18:15:14 Alex/Garby 8 Place Cody/Leo 1 Mike/Chip 6 Show Oconnr/-SUB– 4 Ricky/Laca 10 Win
Game # 2 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 18:17:34 Ended: 18:28:15 -SUB–/Leo 10 Win Alex/Chip 3 Cody/-SUB– 4 Place Mike/Laca 2 Oconnr/Thomas 3 Show
Game # 3 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 18:32:12 Ended: 18:42:25 Linard/Chip 2 Show ——/—— 0 POSITION SCRATCHED Alex/Laca 1 Cody/Thomas 5 Place Mike/Anthny 10 Win
Game # 4 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 18:45:33 Ended: 18:59:53 Ricky/-SUB– 8 Place Linard/Laca 3 -SUB–/Thomas 5 Show Alex/Anthny 10 Win Cody/Garby 2
Game # 5 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 19:02:07 Ended: 19:13:10 Oconnr/Laca 4 Ricky/Thomas 5 Place Linard/Anthny 10 Win -SUB–/Garby 4 Show Alex/Leo 0
Game # 6 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 19:16:02 Ended: 19:25:40 Mike/Thomas 3 Show Oconnr/Anthny 10 Win Ricky/Garby 3 Place Linard/Leo 0 -SUB–/Chip 2
Game # 7 to 10 points 03-29-2022 Start: 19:28:19 Ended: 19:36:53 Cody/Anthny 10 Win Mike/Garby 2 Show Oconnr/Leo 2 Ricky/Chip 3 Place Linard/-SUB– 1
ZOLTAR & CACHIN SCRATCHED AND GET 0 POINTS
Front Totals: Ricky 39+40=79 Alex 40+27=67 Cody 34+29=63 Oconnr 35+27=62 Mike 31+29=60 Linard 19+20=39 Cachin 28+0=28
Back Totals: Anthny 58+65=123 Garby 50+25=75 Thomas 24+28=52 Laca 27+23=50 Chip 25+20=45 Leo 16+16=32 Zoltar 26+0=26
Week 3 Entries 04/05/22
ZOLTAR, ALEX and LINARDOS ARE SCRATCHED THIS WEEK # 3 PERFORMANCE
WEEK 3 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 18:03:01 Ended: 18:22:41 Cachin/Garby 9 Place Ricky/Leo 10 Win Oconnr/Chip 2 -SUB– /Thomas 4 Cody/Laca 5 Show
Game # 2 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 18:25:12 Ended: 18:36:25 -SUB– /Leo 4 Place Cachin/Chip 3 Show Ricky/Thomas 10 Win Oconnr/Laca 3 ——/—— 0 Position Scratched
Game # 3 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 18:41:01 Ended: 19:01:32 Mike/Chip 6 Show -SUB– /Thomas 7 Place Cachin/Laca 4 Ricky/ -SUB– 10 Win Oconnr/Anthny 5
Game # 4 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 19:03:59 Ended: 19:17:30 Cody/Thomas 5 Place Mike/Laca 1 ——/—— 0 Position Scratched Cachin/Anthny 10 Win Ricky/Garby 4 Show
Game # 5 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 19:19:56 Ended: 19:32:42 -SUB– /Laca 0 Cody/ -SUB– 2 Show Mike/Anthny 10 Win -SUB– /Garby 1 Cachin/Leo 6 Place
Game # 6 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 19:34:00 Ended: 19:47:43 Oconnr/ -SUB– 2 -SUB– /Anthny 10 Win Cody/Garby 7 Place Mike/Leo 1 -SUB– /Chip 2 Show
Game # 7 to 10 points 04-05-2022 Start: 19:49:00 Ended: 19:56:43 Ricky/Anthny 10 Win Oconnr/Garby 0 -SUB– /Leo 1 Show Cody/Chip 3 Place Mike/Thomas 0
Front Totals: Ricky 39+40+57=136 Cody 34+29+30=93 Mike 31+29+22=82 Oconnr 35+27+12=74
Cachin 28+0+40=68 Alex 40+27+0=67 Linard 19+20+0=39
Back Totals: Anthny 58+65+57=180 Garby 50+25+26=101 Thomas 24+28+33=85 Chip 25+20+21=66
Laca 27+23+14=64 Leo 16+16+30=62 Zoltar 26+0+0=26
Week 4 Entries 04/12/22
ZOLTAR, CODY and RICKY (AFTER GAME 4) ARE SCRATCHED THIS WEEK # 4 PERFORMANCE
WEEK 4 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 18:00:14 Ended: 18:16:45 Oconnr/Thomas 5 Mike/Garby 6 Show Alex/-SUB– 7 Place Linard/Laca 5 -SUB–/Leo 10 Win
Game # 2 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 18:18:59 Ended: 18:33:20 Ricky/Garby 10 Win Oconnr/-SUB– 3 Mike/Laca 8 Place Alex/Leo 4 Show Linard/Chip 1
Game # 3 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 18:35:32 Ended: 18:52:14 Cachin/-SUB– 9 Place Ricky/Laca 4 Show Oconnr/Leo 2 Mike/Chip 4 Alex/Anthny 10 Win
Game # 4 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 18:55:44 Ended: 19:20:41 -SUB–/Laca 8 Place Cachin/Leo 7 Show Ricky/Chip 4 Ricky Scratched during game Oconnr/Anthny 10 Win Mike/Thomas 7
Game # 5 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 19:25:37 Ended: 19:40:35 Mike/Anthny 10 Win Alex/Thomas 6 Show Linard/Garby 6 Place ——/—— 0 Position Scratched Cachin/Laca 3
Game # 6 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 19:44:50 Ended: 19:59:16 Alex/Chip 1 Linard/Anthny 10 Win -SUB–/Thomas 5 Show Cachin/Garby 6 Place ——/—— 0 Position Scratched
Game # 7 to 10 points 04-12-2022 Start: 20:02:45 Ended: 20:11:59 Linard/Leo 0 -SUB–/Chip 1 Cachin/Anthny 10 Win -SUB–/Thomas 1 Show Oconnr/Garby 3 Place
Week 5 Entries 04/19/22
Several Scratches: Zoltar, Anthny, and Cody scratched for performance. Ricky scratched game #1 but played 4 others. Linard scratched game #7 but played 4 others.
WEEK 5 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 18:05:00 Ended: 18:15:31 Cachin/Garby 10 Win Linard/Thomas 3 Show ——/—— 0 Position Scratched Oconnr/Leo 4 Place -SUB–/Laca 2
Game # 2 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 18:20:15 Ended: 18:44:24 Alex/Thomas 9 Show Cachin/-SUB– 10 Win Linard/Leo 7 -SUB–/Laca 9 Place Oconnr/Chip 7
Game # 3 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 18:46:33 Ended: 18:57:29 Mike/-SUB– 4 Place Alex/Leo 10 Win Cachin/Laca 2 Linard/Chip 3 Show ——/—— 0 Position Scratched
Game # 4 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 19:00:19 Ended: 19:16:04 Ricky/Leo 10 Win Mike/Laca 3 Alex/Chip 4 Show Cachin/-SUB– 8 Place Linard/Garby 1
Game # 5 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 19:18:18 Ended: 19:29:55 Oconnr/Laca 2 Ricky/Chip 5 Place Mike/-SUB– 10 Win Alex/Garby 2 Show Cachin/Thomas 0
Game # 6 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 19:34:50 Ended: 19:52:33 -SUB–/Chip 9 Place Oconnr/-SUB– 0 Ricky/Garby 10 Win Mike/Thomas 0 Alex/-SUB– 8 Show
Game # 7 to 10 points 04-19-2022 Start: 19:53:54 Ended: 20:04:24 ——/—— 0 Position Scratched -SUB–/Garby 7 Place Oconnr/Thomas 2 Show Ricky/-SUB– 10 Win Mike/Leo 1
WEEK 5 STANDINGS
WEEK 6 ENTRIES 04/26/22
Linard and Zoltar scratched…
WEEK 6 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 18:00:05 Ended: 18:13:24 Cachin/Chip 6 Show Mike/Garby 7 Place -SUB–/Thomas 10 Win Oconnr/Leo 2 Alex/Laca 2
Game # 2 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 18:16:29 Ended: 18:32:28 Cody/Garby 5 Show Cachin/Thomas 8 Place Mike/Leo 2 -SUB–/Laca 4 Oconnr/-SUB– 10 Win
Game # 3 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 18:34:58 Ended: 18:44:20 Ricky/Thomas 10 Win Cody/Leo 0 Cachin/Laca 1 Mike/-SUB– 3 Show -SUB–/Anthny 4 Place
Game # 4 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 18:46:22 Ended: 19:02:30 Alex/Leo 3 Ricky/Laca 4 Place Cody/-SUB– 4 Show Cachin/Anthny 10 Win Mike/Chip 3
Game # 5 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 19:05:08 Ended: 19:20:33 Oconnr/Laca 4 Show Alex/-SUB– 1 Ricky/Anthny 10 Win Cody/Chip 9 Place Cachin/Garby 3
Game # 6 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 19:22:17 Ended: 19:33:35 ——/—— 0 Position Scratched Oconnr/Anthny 7 Place Alex/Chip 2 Ricky/Garby 10 Win Cody/Thomas 4 Show
Game # 7 to 10 points 04-26-2022 Start: 19:35:15 Ended: 19:48:55 Mike/Anthny 10 Win -SUB–/Chip 1 Oconnr/Garby 3 Show Alex/Thomas 0 Ricky/Leo 4 Place
WEEK 6 STANDINGS:
WEEK 7 ENTRIES 05/03/22
LINARD, ZOLTAR AND LACA SCRATCHED
WEEK 7 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 18:02:11 Ended: 18:16:42 Mike/Thomas 5 Place Cachin/Chip 0 Alex/Garby 2 Oconnr/Leo 10 Win Cody/-SUB– 3 Show
Game # 2 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 18:18:47 Ended: 18:36:12 -SUB–/Chip 9 Place Mike/Garby 10 Win Cachin/Leo 2 Alex/-SUB– 2 Oconnr/Anthny 7 Show
Game # 3 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 18:37:34 Ended: 18:58:50 Ricky/Garby 10 Win -SUB–/Leo 4 Mike/-SUB– 5 Show Cachin/Anthny 7 Place Alex/-SUB– 4
Game # 4 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 19:02:00 Ended: 19:21:20 Cody/Leo 2 Ricky/-SUB– 8 Show -SUB–/Anthny 10 Win Mike/-SUB– 3 Cachin/Thomas 8 Place
Game # 5 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 19:22:27 Ended: 19:39:52 Oconnr/-SUB– 4 Show Cody/Anthny 10 Win Ricky/-SUB– 6 Place -SUB–/Thomas 3 Mike/Chip 3
Game # 6 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 19:40:44 Ended: 19:55:52 Alex/Anthny 10 Win Oconnr/-SUB– 3 Cody/Thomas 1 Ricky/Chip 7 Place -SUB–/Garby 5 Show
Game # 7 to 10 points 05-03-2022 Start: 19:58:24 Ended: 20:12:11 Cachin/-SUB– 10 Win Alex/Thomas 5 Show Oconnr/Chip 2 Cody/Garby 0 Ricky/Leo 5 Place
WEEK 7 STANDINGS:
WEEK 8 ENTRIES 05/10/22
CODY, LINARD AND ZOLTAR SCRATCHED
WEEK 8 RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 18:07:25 Ended: 18:25:38 Mike/Thomas 3 Cachin/Chip 10 Win Alex/Garby 7 Place Oconnr/Leo 4 -SUB–/Laca 6 Show
Game # 2 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 18:27:49 Ended: 18:45:44 -SUB–/Chip 10 Win Mike/Garby 6 Show Cachin/Leo 3 Alex/Laca 5 Oconnr/Anthny 6 Place
Game # 3 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 18:48:06 Ended: 19:01:31 Ricky/Garby 6 Place -SUB–/Leo 1 Mike/Laca 2 Show Cachin/Anthny 10 Win Alex/-SUB– 1
Game # 4 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 19:03:38 Ended: 19:14:41 -SUB–/Leo 6 Place Ricky/Laca 10 Win -SUB–/Anthny 4 Show Mike/-SUB– 1 Cachin/Thomas 1
Game # 5 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 19:16:19 Ended: 19:32:03 Oconnr/Laca 3 -SUB–/Anthny 10 Win Ricky/-SUB– 8 Place -SUB–/Thomas 4 Show Mike/Chip 1
Game # 6 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 19:34:11 Ended: 19:47:13 Alex/Anthny 3 Show Oconnr/-SUB– 4 Place -SUB–/Thomas 1 Ricky/Chip 10 Win -SUB–/Garby 2
Game # 7 to 10 points 05-10-2022 Start: 19:51:02 Ended: 20:02:03 Cachin/-SUB– 0 Alex/Thomas 5 Place Oconnr/Chip 2 -SUB–/Garby 4 Show Ricky/Leo 10 Win
WEEK 8 STANDINGS:
FOR FINALS (PROBABLE 2ND FOR CACHIN)A BATTLE FOR 3RD (FRONT: ALEX, MIKE, OCONNER) (BACK: CHIP, LEO, THOMAS)
WEEK 9 (THE FINALE) ENTRIES 05/17/22:
WEEK 9 FINALS RESULTS:
Game # 1 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 18:03:35 Ended: 18:18:33 Alex/Anthny 10 Win Oconnr/Thomas 1 -SUB–/Leo 3 Show Cachin/Laca 1 Mike/Chip 7 Place
Game # 2 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 18:20:39 Ended: 18:42:29 -SUB–/Thomas 5 Alex/Leo 6 Oconnr/Laca 7 Show -SUB–/Chip 10 Win Cachin/Garby 8 Place
Game # 3 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 18:46:10 Ended: 19:08:05 Ricky/Leo 10 Win -SUB–/Laca 9 Show Alex/Chip 6 Oconnr/Garby 9 Place
-SUB–/-SUB– Post 5 eliminated
Game # 4 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 19:14:40 Ended: 19:30:15 Mike/Laca 5 Show Ricky/Chip 10 Win -SUB–/Garby 2 Alex/-SUB– 2 Oconnr/Anthny 7 Place
Game # 5 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 19:34:00 Ended: 19:50:26 Cachin/Chip 5 Show Mike/Garby 7 Place Ricky/-SUB– 3 -SUB–/Anthny 10 Win Alex/Thomas 3
Game # 6 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 19:54:50 Ended: 20:13:33 -SUB–/Garby 4 Place Cachin/-SUB– 2 Mike/Anthny 4 Show Ricky/Thomas 10 Win -SUB–/Leo 0
Game # 7 to 10 points 05-17-2022 Start: 20:19:18 Ended: 20:27:58 Oconnr/-SUB– 0 -SUB–/Anthny 10 Win Cachin/Thomas 1 Mike/Leo 1 Show Ricky/Laca 2 Place
WEEK 9 FINAL STANDINGS:
Front Court Final Trophies: 1st – Ricky 2nd – Cachin 3rd – Mike
Back Court Final Trophies: 1st – Anthny 2nd – Garby 3rd – Chip
(Left to Right) Ricky 1st Front, Anthny 1st Back, Cachin 2nd Front, Garby 2nd Back, Chip 3rd Back, Mike 3rd Front
(Left to Right) Anthny, Ricky, Cachin, Chip, Garby, Mike
Say Hi Li has added a new section of some great “unseen” photos of various frontons and program photos in the USA that you definitely should go check out.
Matt DiDomizio sunk all he had into building an amateur court in central Connecticut, and now 12 years later, everything is still going strong.
To mark the occasion, he held a big weekend tournament last weekend that was attended by dozens or players and spectators.
“Everyone really played great in his tournament”, DiDomizio said. He made special mention to players like Gallo who “played phenomenally”. He also said “DeCarlo, El Nino, Gino and Tino all played fabulous to get to the finals in in the finals”.
Matt was also pleased to see Lander and his dad playing against each other and “really, really great”.
Other players he mentioned included Ed G, Okie (Bill O’Connor), JK and Thomas. Also, Paul R, Jacques and Edward were great too he said.
The two-day tournament took place Saturday and Sunday with a 12 game Spec 9 performance held on Friday night. Matt was very happy in the way “everyone was so good in, number one, their behavior and number two, in helping out– bringing food, buying food, helping with the refereeing, subbing in games when I needed them. He made note of the great announcing by Leo, which the Pelota Press concurs on.
Loren Harris Tribute
There were tributes held during each performance on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the late Loren Harris. Matt helped raise $556 over the 3 days (special thanks to all those that chipped in) that has been sent to Mexico in his name.
Matt Tribute Video
Matt’s daughter Katie was quietly working behind the scenes the past week or so collecting videos of several players who congratulated Matt on his 12th anniversary and was played to everyone on Sunday. A great idea that went over well. You can watch the video on the link here or on YouTube.
Here are the results of the event: (Right click any picture and open image in new tab to enlarge)
