Here is some brief video from the Cancun tournament that was just held the first weekend in February. Photo and video by Arturo Salas. More images and details to come.
I was fully booked to attend and play in the event, but a death of a close friend caused a late change in plans, thus no full details and images for now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
“Magic” Matt DiDomizio has changed the dates of his upcoming jai-alai tournament this spring in Berlin, Connecticut.
The event has been postponed two weeks till the end of April – the 28-30th, again on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The reason for the change was that several players would not have been able to make it that mid-April weekend, which was reported here on the Pelota Press a couple weeks ago. It was also changed to coincide with his 13th anniversary date. If you recall, last years event was held on basically the same dates.
The change was made as a few players from the Tampa Bay area were getting to book their flights, and already they have booked their flights for the new dates were finalized this Friday morning.
The weather should be a little nicer and the dogwoods should just starting to bloom around that time.
Friday, April 14th – 6:30pm
Spec 9 version of jai-alai – all played in Singles Games – Special Edition
$10 Spectator Fee for non-players
Saturday, April 15th – 10am
Doubles Day tournament
Handicapped Teams by Matts pickings
Partido’s to 9 points to determine playoff brackets
Sunday, April 16th – 10am
Partido Challenge Day
Sign up your team. Matt will match them up – OR –
Sign up 2 teams to make your own partido match
You only have to be there for your game
25-point Partido unless both teams agree to go to 21-point game
Kill shots allowed unless both teams agree to “no shots”
Fee Schedule
Play 1 Day – $25
Play 2 or 3 Days – $50
There will be a $100 insurance fee paid by April 1st to Register. The money is reimbursed when you play.
Deadline to Register is April Fools Day. No Late entries allowed.
Contact Matt for full information regarding that matter and all other details.
To clarify, on Saturday’s schedule, Matt will determine the teams to make it as fair as possible to all. A weaker player will be chosen with a stronger player. This is the reason for the strict rules on paying up front and to be fully committed.
By Jeff “Laca” Conway
The two-month Dania Jai-alai Invitational Event is now over, with Urutia/Mandiola taking the championship by beating Iturbide/Oyhenard 21-12 late Saturday night in the finals. It was an exciting two months for the fronton, which had appeared to be destined to be a “hotel lobby” or something when it was announced jai-alai was over for good. Decent crowds and handle helped spark bringing lot of people into the building to watch some real exciting jai-alai action.
Jai-alai will return – likely on Friday, December 1, 2023 for at least another two-month season. Using the same format makes sense – its economical and avoids the “pesky” visa issues. We do know the owners were pleased with the results. Of course, a longer season would be desired, but not feasible in these days.
The accounting team will do a deep dive and produce their analysis of the two-month season so actually see if it was profitable or close to it.
On the players side, all the players (not heading to Magic City) have been invited back for next season. So far, only two players have indicated they cannot return. In the springtime, Benny will start actively scouting players to fill out the roster.
Here is a bunch of charts on the season of just about all the odds you could imagine (special thanks to Mo Crank of the SayHiLi Site for preparing these):
Berlin Connecticut will once again be the jai-alai capital of the world, with Matt DiDomizio staging a huge 3 day – all separate events of their own – tournament. The event will take place April 14-16, 2023, just as the weather starts to warm up in the Nutmeg state.
Each tournament will play to its completion the same day. Here is how it will work:
Spec 9 version of jai-alai – all played in Singles Games – Special Edition
$10 Spectator Fee for non-players
Doubles Day tournament
Handicapped Teams
Partido’s to 9 points to determine playoff brackets
Partido Challenge Day
Sign up your team. Matt will match them up – OR –
Sign up 2 teams to make your own partido match
You only have to be there for your game
25-point Partido unless both teams agree to go to 21-point game
Kill shots allowed unless both teams agree to “no shots”
Play 1 Day – $25
Play 2 or 3 Days – $50
There will be a $100 insurance fee paid by April 1st to Register. The money is reimbursed when you play.
Deadline to Register is April Fools Day. No Late entries allowed.
Contact Matt for full information regarding that matter and all other details.
Dania jai-alai will conclude its successful “return” season this week. It will also feature the final partido’s to determine the winners of some nice prize money.
The crowds and handle have been decent, and the quality of play has been phenomenal. If you get a chance to get over there, do so, as it is must better live and in person than watching on a TV or phone screen. The season ends this Sunday with a 1pm matinee.
This season, Dania was able to be pulled off without the 16 or so young Basque players from Spain and France requiring expensive and time confusing visas or the necessary legal requirements to stay in the United States for two months because they are competing in a tournament and not actually receiving a salary. Their pay is based on a per diem allowance (a specific amount of money to cover living expenses when traveling) and prize money. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for these young men (some are 18 years old) to be able to come to America and play a sport professionally that they have been playing back home since little kids. On their off time (Sunday evening to Wednesday evening), some of the players have been able to sneak off to NYC or the Florida Keys for a visit.
There has been some more good news – Benny announced during a broadcast that there will be a “season” next year – likely the same format as this years – for 2022-2023 to run again in December and January. Those dates are now registered with the State. There is talk of adding the month of February and another spring tournament like last year, but nothing is finalized yet. Extending the season at least a month makes total sense – there’s far more tourists in town in February (even more in March) and breaking even or coming close to or making a small profit is certainly doable. At least its bringing people into the building. As I have said before, the owners like jai-alai, and they like Benny, and would love to keep it going.
Statistical charts complied by Straymar and his staff. You can visit his site at Sayhili.com.
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Yesterday on the Dania Jai-alai broadcast, Benny and Big Dave Lemmon discussed the St. Petersburg Cancha during their broadcast.
You can check I out here.
Special thanks to George Quinn for sending it over to the Pelota Press. I was watching the NFL playoffs on TV all day Sunday and missed it. I also could have sworn I heard the announcer (who I had no idea was) close out Saturday nights performance as saying the next performance was this Wednesday. Oh well, we all have bad nights, like Dave LaMott did on Friday night! I’ll see you guy again this Thursday and Friday nights. Been a real treat to watch the past 6 weeks and its almost coming to an end. Benny has already mentioned about next year on the broadcasts, so one can assume it’s been a success like we predicted. How ‘bout some marketing next year Dania? Couple of billboards perhaps? Even send out some email updates to your own data base on jai-alai would help. too.
Magic City Jai-alai had their “Battle Court” draft Monday night, January 9th.
Here are the teams, and as you can see, lots of current Dania players including Zulaika, Iturbide, Goixerri, Goenaga, and Arta will be heading south next month to join the Magic City roster.
There will be 5 teams now as Magic City continues to expand its operations.
More details to come soon.
Happy New Years everybody. We start off with some sad news…….
The highly anticipated 3rd annual event of the Magic City players vs. Tampa Bay players has been postponed.
The event was scheduled to take place Saturday, January 14th at 11am. A very strong roster of over twenty (20) players in the Tampa Bay area add already signed up to compete in the event.
Magic City is now looking at coming up this summer, during the time they are closed in their long season that runs from February thru November.
The J Laca Museum Friday night party has also been squashed due to the event cancelation.
There is talk of a regular “Spec 9” event happening among the Tampa Bay players, but it appears the “magic” is gone for now.
Here are a lot of unique stats compiled by Jabracadabra and Straymar based on the first 2 1/2 weeks of action of the tournament being held at Dania Jai-alai. These stats should help you make bets with more accuracy on the mostly new and young roster. Be sure to check out their website - Say HiLi for more details.
The National Jai-alai Association welcomes back the Magic City roster for its 3rd annual event January 13-14th of next month. The dates are on a Friday and Saturday this time, with the scheduling dates approved by Magic City management.
Friday will likely be a practice day with open play for all players- Magic City’s roster and the public.
Saturday would be a structured event, most likely a bunch of games featuring players mixed up and some with players from each cancha competing against each other. There will be no trophies, fees or any organized “tournaments” as play is strictly for fun. Magic City players are on a year-round employment contract, and their safely and well-being is our most concern. Free programs will be handed out to all as a sponsorship of The Pelota Press, Clearwater Enviro Tech, and Magic Mike Computer Services.
On Friday night, January 13th, the JLaca Museum will be open again to all jai-alai players and fans at 6pm. There will be plenty of alcohol, wine, soda, domestic beer, and food available. RSVP is required to obtain a head count. If you would like to bring an appetizer or dessert, please do so. If you don’t like “old fart” beer like Bud or Bud Light, you might want to bring your own. The players have always enjoyed their visit to the museum. The Home Theatre, with its 150” screen and surround sound will be open later for Live Dania Jai-alai betting with Watch and Wager.
The past two Magic City events, both held in the “off season” winter , have been a big hit. Record breaking player turnouts with decent crowds attending.
The public is welcome to attend either day, but we recommend Saturday – January 14th when everyone is out there. The starting time is to be determined. One side note is the NFL Playoffs start that day at 4:30pm and continue all weekend. If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold on to win the division (yes, they do have Tom Brady on the team that is in first place with under a .500 record), they would likely host the Dallas Cowboys. That site would be just across the bridge in Tampa – on a date and time to be determined. However, any game with the Cowboys vs. Tom Brady would likely be in prime time.
