Scaled Down JLaca Museum Renovations Underway
Seminole, Florida: October 23, 2026: The JLaca Museum was flooded with 42” a little over two years ago and declared all but dead from hurricane Helene. Nearly half the jai-alai collection was destroyed along with all the unique designs and room setups, while the massive sports collection lost about 40% The jai-alai collection was the largest in the western hemisphere while the sports collection covered baseball, football, boxing, and hockey with items such as signed balls by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Honus Wagner and a Cy Young signed 1900 baseball cap. Over 700 people visited including baseball Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff and several jai-alai players from Solaun and (the real) Laca to El Barba and Juice.
However, the museum will be scaled down considerable with the limited collection. It will still feature donated items from Daniel, Laca, Straymar, Mr.. Priceline, Alec Smith, Dave Lemmon, Benny Bueno, Randy, Kent, Jesus, Marty Fleishman, Paul Kubala, Rastock, Jai-a-Lou, Denver and many others. About 38 feet of table space will be placed up against the walls and have items placed on it. Nothing will be hung on the walls below the tables which are 29” tall. A new feature of the museum will feature a 30-foot-long collage of photos from the previous museum which was open nearly 10 years. Nearly 200 photos will grace this amazing collection.
The existing concrete walls have been painted white, and items can be easily dismantled in hours if another storm rolls by. The last storm missed us by hundreds of miles but still flooded the Tampa Bay area causing billions of dollars in losses. It was called a one in a hundred-year event. Given we had gone 103 years since a hurricane came our way, I guess we were due. But hitting Perry Florida up in the panhandle, no one expected the massive flooding in the middle of the night that disrupted tens of thousands of people’s lives.
A portable wall will be added by next spring to have it all air conditioned as needed, but in the meantime, the live blackjack parties, poker will return soon. Plans will include a big ping-pong tournament – as the one we had been scheduled was just 10 days away when the hurricane hit and was unfortunately canceled. A boat was up against where one of the tables was going to be set up. Some anticipated matchups could include Marty Fleishman vs. Rastock, Anthony Sutton vs. an old college buddy of mine and a few more. These are players that simply don’t lose at the game, and it should be a blast.
The museum won’t be anything like it was before and sadly there is nothing that can be done about it. Most of the sports memorabilia (over 300 items remain from the flood) will be sold at auctions.
