Puryear Park Cancha Closed for Renovations Plus Tournament Bracket
Editors Note: This is our first story to be posted on Pelota Press in 4 months and it is no coincidence it had to be due to Hurricane Helene. I’ll have details and lots of photos later to explain. But first, a public notice that needs to go out:
America’s first and only public jai-alai court is closed for several days this week in preparation for the annual “Scott King” Sunshine City Jai-alai tournament scheduled for this weekend.
Workers are fixing the cancha’s damage from Hurricane Milton along with filling in the cracks and holes on the walls and floors from the brutal beating it takes with the millions of Matt Balls slamming on it (Belota and RG3 throws – not Magic Mike’s!).
On Thursday, the court walls will be painted with a fresh coat of green, covering up the white markings from the balls taping coming off and the faded paint.
The court is scheduled to be open on Friday as players from all over the county be able to practice for the weekend festivities that start at 10am Saturday.
The Pelota Press will have details later this week on the tournament.
HistoryMiami Museum Celebrates 100 years of Jai-alai
On the eve of Magic City’s Jai-alai Labor Day weekend, dozens of jai-alai aficionados attended the HistoryMiami Museum for the special grand opening of their latest exhibit on jai-alai. The reception was put on by Magic City Jai-alai and the city of Miami and featured some great appetizers and drinks.
HistoryMiami Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate located in downtown Miami, safeguards and shares Miami stories to foster learning, inspire a sense of place, and cultivate an engaged community. We connect people by telling the stories of their communities, individuals, places and events. Every exhibition, artistic endeavor, city tour, educational program, research effort and publication we present is another step closer to everyone understanding the critical value of the past in shaping our collective future.
Scott Savin gave a speech as jai-alai has been a special part of Miami history that started 100 years ago, and lives on.
Here are more details on the Cancun Tournament being held the weekend of November 8-10th. For your guide, 300 MX (Pesos) is the equivalent to $15 USD. _
The long-anticipated weekend is here. Magic City Jai-alai’s big event – spreading over 3 days is upon us. This time, it is over the Labor Day weekend, allowing for what is expected to be a record player turnout.
Dozens of amateur players from the USA will be competing on Friday in the U.S. National Jai-alai Championship, with the finals being played on Sunday.
The start time is a question. The Magic City website recently posted that the USNJAC starts Friday at 10am, while I’ve seen other internal communications say 9am. Check on that Stu! The website also has the event ending at 3pm, but I recall it lasting much longer than that before. Regardless, they run a well-organized and professionally produced event with well over $50,000 in prize money to be distributed among the winners.
There will be a limit of 32 Singles entries and limited to 14 doubles teams. All matches are played to 6 points with the finals going to 7. There is a Playback bracket in Doubles only.
The Amateur Singles and Doubles Prize Money is $1,000 for 1st place, and $500 for 2nd Place.
2024 U.S. NATIONAL JAI-ALAI CHAMPIONSHIP
August 30th and September 1st
Friday 10am – 3pm Sunday 12pm – 3pm (Finals)
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.
2023 WINNERS
Professionals Singles Champion
Goixerri
Ekaitz Mendizabal
Professionals Doubles Champions
Goixerri & Aratz
Ekaitz Mendizabal & Aratz Mendizabal
Masters Singles Champion
Ant
Anthony Sutton
Masters Doubles Champions
Rastock & Conrado
Stephen Rastocky & Alfonso Diaz
The big event is the World Super Cup – held on Saturday and Sunday with twenty (20) of the worlds greatest players competing for some huge money. Check out the lineup shown below. Pretty impressive!
Check out this latest donation to the museum. This was donated by Michael Works, who went by the name “Cal” and wore number 44. He played at Palm Beach of course, and he also played pro in Newport. He had a strong right side and now lives in Montana.
I texted this image to several former players from those the two rosters and many distinctly remember this cap. “Cal” also remembers Denver, Rastock and Adam from Milford Amateur Jai-alai, who play often at the St. Pete court now.
What does the “Bad Boys” of Palm Beach Jai-alai stand for?
Bruce “Denver” Weisman thinks it might have had something to do with the movie that came out in 1995 but is not positive. Lou “Jai-a-Lou” Berdelians isn’t 100% sure either, but thinks it was based on marketing – that the Pam Beach layers were the “bad boy” – so come see them.
Anyways, it is a nice addition to the museum. Thanks Cal!
Two Big Amateur Tournaments Coming Up in Cancun & St. Pete
We are pleased to announce two big jai-alai tournaments coming up in the next six months – one of them in Cancun Mexico and one in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Salas brothers have set up an event for the weekend of November 8-10 in Cancun, Mexico at the Fronton Salas. The event has players from the USA and Mexico competing and includes both amateur and professional players.
Scott King of the Sunshine City group in St. Pete is going to host another tournament over the same weekend he did last year – the weekend before the Super Bowl. This time, the event will be on Saturday and Sunday, February 1-2. He is expecting a good turnout from Connecticut, Miami and of course the Tampa Bay area. Details are still in the works, and we will release them as they become available.
Make sure you mark these dates on your calendar and hope you can attend!
Magic City’s “Battle Court” Season Opens September 2, 2024
Magic City’s exciting “Battle Court” action will be open again for a new season – on Labor Day – Monday September 2nd at 5pm. This will immediately follow the big weekend of the US National Championships and the World Super Cup the preceding three days.
There will be 6 teams competing for big money and if you are lucky enough to be in a state that allows sports betting, you can bet on the team to win in fixed sports betting odds. They also will play on Tuesday’s at 5pm and Friday’s at 7pm. I believe fans are only allowed in the building, unfortunately, on Friday nights.
The playoffs will take place on December 6th with the championships on December 13th.
Check out the chart for full roster details. Special thanks to Paul “Castanos” Kubala for the photo taken at the draft.
Dania’s has released its 22-player roster last week, as the three-month season (or shall we say “Tournament”) starts a little bit earlier this year on Friday, November 29th.
By looking at Say Hi Li’s/Mo Crank’s story, it appears that there will be 7 new players making their debut, while 9 others are making their 3rd straight season in the new format.
The reason for the earlier opening is to take advantage of the holiday weekend – as November 29th is the day after Thanksgiving and there are a lot of tourists in town.
Special thanks to Mo Crank for coming up with that great chart.
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.
