Archive for category: Jeff ‘Laca’ Conway Blogs

Marty, Solaun Greeted with Rain, Wet Grounds & Ducks at Puryear Park Debut  

It had been on their calendar for a while.  Marty Fleischman and Ricky Solaun were to make their Puryear Park debut this morning at 10am.  They had another commitment in St. Pete later today and thought it was time to visit America’s first and only public cancha.  The former Tampa and Hartford star and player manager was leaving for Spain in a couple days.  He had made it the JLaca Museum in a visit a year ago at around the same time of the year.  But Solaun was out there and ready to play, but unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas.  It rained.  Rained hard all morning but there was a break in the action.  They were going to show up rain or shine as reported on the Pelota Press, and they did.

We had a few players committed to attend the performance but shied away (along with myself) because of the rain and wet grounds.  But the two jai-alai celebrities were there to check it out regardless.  Only a family of ducks were in attendance!  The court was soaking wet, as expected and no cestas were in sight.  More rain was expected – but badly needed – as it had been dry for over a month.  

Check out the video Marty sent over to the Pelota Press of the soaking wet court and Solaun checking it out.  

Maybe next year, guys? 

Magic City Jai-alai Averaging 100,000 TikTok Viewers a Performance

There’s a great article on Jai-alai that just came out in the online newspaper called “Thrillist”.

It’s called “Can Miami Save this 150 – Year Old Sport from Near Extinction?”.  There are quotes from Scott Savin, Benny and even “Baby” Benny, Chris Bueno that talk about the sport and what their frontons are doing.

The online newspaper is quite good – I had never heard of it before, but they do have offices in nearly twenty cities across America.  This article is written by Matt Meltzer of their Miami offices. 

Without stealing their thunder, there were a couple of things I thought were interesting in the article.  Savin mentioned that Magic City Jai-alai was getting about 100,000 views on TikTok, the controversial social media platform, which is overwhelmingly favored by the Gen Z generation.   That is certainly the age group you want to be marketing to, and not the ones that went to jai-alai 40-50 years ago like me.  Besides, we’re already fans of the sport. 

Savin also mentioned if betting were allowed in Florida for their Battle Court matches, they would be breaking even or making a profit.  The Battle Court matches allow sports betting only in states that have approved jai-alai.  Don’t look for that to happen with the Hard Rock anytime soon – it was Magic City Casino that sued the state and successfully shut down sport betting with the Hard Rock Casino for two years and still has a case pending in the state Supreme Court.  It’s too bad, that version of jai-alai is much more exciting and when you place your bet, you know what you’re getting paid – to the penny.  And its one team vs. another and much easier to predict IMO.

I only noticed one mistake in the article. They mentioned Heineken beer as using jai-alai in one of its commercials, when it was Dos Equis Beer that used jai-alai in one of their great “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials. I know. The Madison Avenue Ad agency first contacted me at my National Jai-alai Association site about the sport and acquiring old 1980s video to use. I went to my buddy Lou (Jai-a-Lou) Berdelllans, the former Newport Jai-alai pro, who was the marketing director for Dania Jai-alai at the time. He hooked me up with Marty Fleischman who took over from there using old Tampa Jai-alai film. The commercial was a hit.

CLICK THRILLIST PIC BELOW TO SEE ARTICLE

Will jai-alai ever regain its success like it had in the 70s and 80s?  It could – and I will tell you how in a story coming next week.     

Also coming next week is a story on Dania Jai-alai and what’s going on over there.    

 

The 150th running of the Kentucky Derby is here.  It is the fastest, most exciting two minutes in sports.  I know.  I was there.  Sixty freaking years ago.  I was almost 9 years old, but I remember everything about it like it was yesterday.

Why I was taken out of school in the 3rd   grade in Fairfield, Connecticut to make a trip first to Ft. Wayne, Indiana with my parents, I don’t know.  I just remember we were going to a big horse race in Kentucky that Saturday, May 2nd, 1964.  It was a long drive and recalled it being about a 3 ½ hours trip.  So, a couple of days ago I did a MapQuest to see how long the trip is.  Sure enough, it is still about a 3 ½ hour drive.  A long time for a kid to sit in the backseat of a car with only car bingo to play with. 

Upon entering the place, I was shocked at the size of the parking lot and the long walk to the entrance.  Afterall, the official capacity allowed is about 170,000 people, though I don’t recall a crowd that big ever attending with numbers more like 150,000.  I was there with my parents and two other couples that had the incredible tickets.

We had box seating right at the finish line, about 5 rows back, so I was able to stand on the chair and get a good view of the horses as they went by us.   The architecture of the building right behind us was very distinctive and remember it vividly.

The Derby itself was the 10th or 11th race on the card and everyone in our group was betting every race and losing.  Losing badly.  I didn’t have any money of course, and an 8-year-old obviously can’t bet.  But I was the only one calling the winners.  Everyone was amazed.  I had no program to go by, just looking at the horses as they paraded right by us before every race.  I had called 3 winners, until my mother finally said ”OK, we will make a bet for you.  Who do you want?”  I don’t remember who I picked , but it certainly wasn’t Northern Dancer, who broke the 90-year record that day for the fastest race ever.  It was 2 minutes flat if I recall.  That record held till Secretariat crushed it in 1973 on its way to the Triple Crown – capped by the 31-length win at the Belmont – one of the greatest moments in sports history.  Like Tiger Woods in 1997 win at the Masters.   

I think my horse came in 6th place.  So much for my picks.  I do remember the lady that owned the seats with us winning the next race that day – about $220 on a single bet.  In today’s money, that is worth nearly $2,000!  Then the final race was held, and remember my father’s pick whose jockey fell off the horse on the other side of the track.     

It was an amazing experience and nothing like living in Fairfield Connecticut or Ft. Wayne, Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s.  What I do remember the most is the roar of the crowd as the horses rounded the stretch.  It was unbelievable and experience that should be on everyone’s bucket list.                

A special booklet from that Derby Day is in the museum. 

(TO ENLARGE ANY PICTURE ON A WINDOWS COMPUTER – RIGHT CLICK AND OPEN IMAGE IN NEW TAB)

 Drive by America’s only public jai-alai court in St. Petersburg, and it is likely there will be a pretty decent size group of players virtually everyday out there. 

Puryear Park Jai-alai, which quietly celebrated its 16th anniversary earlier last week, is now in its 17th season.  It’s amazing how time flies, but the court is bigger and better today than ever before.  And yes, more crowded.  So crowed, that 8-post teams are the norm on certain days.  Maybe its time for Paul Kubala to lobby for another court to get built!  From 1990 to 2007 the court was an undesignated jai-alai court, sandwiched in between two racquet ball courts with two 4×8’s acting as the backwall for rebotes and a huge 8 foot gap between the side wall and front wall.      

Why the sudden boom in players?  That’s a good question and will be dig into answers to that. 

First, the expansion orchestrated by Kubala, Scott King, Eric Lanctot and others greatly enhanced the cancha experience since it opened in 2008 before its official opening day before hundreds of people and the entire St. Pete City Council.  I had to spend two days replying to people on Tigers site on why the original construction of the court was so small – compared to other amateur rubber ball court size standards.  We took what the city was offering us and the two votes before the city council were approved unanimously in late 2007.  This information and videos can all be viewed on the Pelota Press website under the NJAA link.  Remember, the great recession took place right at that time, and the court’s plans were finalized just hours before a Friday 5pm deadline in the summer of 2007 when private financing was completed to make the product happen– much to the surprise of city recreational leaders. 

The larger court is a totally different game out there and certainly playing with the “Matt Ball” was a game changer vs. the old-fashioned lacrosse ball that had been used in amateur use everywhere in our area (Seminole Middle School Jai-alai; Largo Winn Dixie Jai-alai; Tampa Plaza Shopping Center Jai-alai) for decades. 

A lot of players have been showing up over the past couple years and playing on a regular basis now, including several ex-pros – some of whom even played on the same roster with Bolivar in Bridgeport.           

Virtually every day, the court has a large group of players. 

Sunday mornings have been drawing a growing group.  Led by Frederico, an original Puryear Park player from 1990, he is now a regular again along with his brother Gino, who had undergone two major surgeries and thought to be goner.  Also coming out of the blue is another amateur, who has two brothers that are well known to the jai-alai world – Daniel and Butler.  Daniel Love is considered one of the greatest backcourt players of all time and had a long career at Tampa, Mexico City and Miami.  He also comes out and plays in the group when he’s not on duty with the sherif’s department locking up the bad guys. Mark Butner now plays on a regular basis whose brother played under the name “Butler” and was an excellent player in Tampa briefly and then Miami.  Mark has excellent form and a major league canon for an arm.  Paul Berglund is also back on a regular basis.  Paul played pro in Ocala for two seasons.

Monday and Wednesday nights has a group called the “Sunshine City” Jai-alai with players like Paul Kubala, former Tampa pro’s Scott King and Corky, former pro Belota, former Dania pro Garby.  Also joining them is Calder player and longtime Connecticut amateur champion Brodie.  Another player includes Eric Lanctot who was the placekicker for Vanderbilt and now a contractor who aided in the remodeling of the cancha, as mentioned earlier in this story.        

Tuesday and Thursday nights have also been busy, averaging about 10 players a performance.  There is variety of about 20-25 different players who come out those nights and is nicknamed the “The Chopped Liver League”.

Fridays are the slow day, with an occasional small group playing with “Businessman’s Luncheon” performance or an occasional Friday evening performance.

Saturdays continue to be the big day – usually drawing about 15-16 players in the morning/early afternoon for a long 4–5-hour performance.  Let by Anthony Sutton, last year’s National Singles Masters Champion aka “Ant”, the people come out when invited in droves. 

When E.F. Hutton calls, people listen.

When A.M. Sutton texts, people come out to play.

Several people make long trips – such as Adam who comes a couple times a month from Daytona.  Adam was a veteran player who was one of Bolivar’s favorite backcourters at Bridgeport Jai-alai.  Rastock is a regular at Puryear Park, making multiple visits every month and seems to never lose a game.  Also playing with Bolivar in Bridgeport, Rastock was a National Champion (Masters – Doubles) last year at the Magic City tournament, and he continues to defy father time and is one of the top players around.  Ty Wilson is a former Newport RI player who is also a regular and makes the trip over with Rastock along with amateur player Eric Auman.  It is also not unusual to see Elorri make the trip – also from Orlando.  He was the former player manager at Orlando Jai-alai and an original player on the roster.        

Another player who has become a regular is Phatboy, whose real name is Brent. A longtime Orlando amateur, you might recall him competing in the Magic City event the past couple years.  He too, has good form and a major league arm.  A couple of weeks ago he had former Orlando pro and close friend “Jericho”.  He played very well, considering he had not played since Orlando closed its doors years ago and is now a church.

The only drawback is that we have not had any young players come out in years.  The problem is that there have been no professional jai-alai here since 1998 when Tampa Jai-alai closed.  It became a Sam’s and Home Depot on its massive property near the McDill Air Force base at that time.  Jai-alai cestas are not hanging in the racks of Dick’s Sporting Goods, further complicating things.  In fact, when you mention the word jai-alai to anybody under 45, they say “Oh, you mean the beer?”.  That of course, is the Jai-alai Beer that we all know about and is brewed in Tampa.             

Coming next – What could save Jai-alai?  We have the answer. And no, it’s not Spanky winning a Billion $$ Lottery and opening a fronton!