Miami, Dania and Fronton

Hello jai alai fans around the world, thanks for reading another edition of New World Jai Alai.

The Fronton social network is now up to 544 members as of “press time” and it is a wonderful community. I had no idea that the sport still had so many passionate fans and it gives true hope for the sport. The thing I love about Christian’s creation is the many features – it is not just another jai alai forum. It is truly a social network and will be in the forefront of the rebuilding and refurbishing of this sport we all love so dearly. High cesta to the creator and all the members of Fronton, you guys are doing a wonderful job. It amazes me that it took a gentleman from Sweden to bring us all together, but thank god Christian created Fronton because it was something the jai alai community and the pelota community in general needed badly.

Now on to some of the play from the frontons……………..

Let’s start with Miami, who switched to an 11 game format due to injuries and players playing in partidos. I will say this, the players have been playing in an extreme number of games lately and the play has not suffered, everyone is still playing at a very high level and that says a lot about the motivational factors that make Miami such an exciting place to watch jai alai. I thought the play would begin to suffer after a week or two of the extreme workload but it has not. High cesta to all the players for continuing to give your all! There is A LOT of nitpicking that goes on when it comes to Miami but they continue to bring us a wonderful product on the cancha.

Two players come to my mind as I sit to share my thoughts with you……Arrasate and Gallardo, both are playing great jai alai right now. Arrasate is probably the class of this roster right now outside of Rekalde. He just continues to get better and better. His left side has developed wonderfully over the last 2-3 years, turning a weakness into another strength. I said it before, outside of Goiko and Diego, he has the best right side rebote in the business. Gallardo is in wonderful form right now. He is using the side wall wonderfully and his placement on his shots has been wonderful.

Also Arriza, always a personal favorite, is playing nice right now. He is a very good defensive back. He’s very good at catching balls scrapping the wall and balls in the deep corner.

Jabi seems to be a different player when the young guns are overseas. You can’t tell based on emotion of course because Jabi always has the same carefree, expressionless attitude on the court. But he tries a lot more remates and plays more within his game facing this current group. One thing Jabi always does and that’s controls the point. He keeps the backcourter deep and can catch everything from the left side. Except for the occasional over serve, Jabi rarely makes any unforced errors. Hopefully he can continue it when the big boys return.

Just when we thought Xala was coming along, he has started to struggle. I like his game, he is fearless that’s for sure, so let’s hope the man turns it around. I think he can stick in the early games.

As far as Dania goes wow, Arriaga is playing brilliant. His cortada has been perfectly placed and uncatchable and the big forehand has made its return. High cesta to a true legend of the game.

Erik is a natural on the cancha, but do you guys think everybody went overboard on the projection that this pelotari is going to be the next GREAT player. We’ll see, so far he has looked good but I never see him reaching the level of the greats. He has a long feature game career ahead of him and is very, very skilled in all areas of the game. He will be a top 5 front at Dania for a long time……..but is he better than Angel? (That was a recent debate at Derby LaneJ).

Elizalde in the feature games? Really? He has played very well during his latest Dania stint but really, he does not belong in this group. It is a depleted group of backcourters, I understand that, but there are others I would take over him. That being said he has at least been putting in the effort and that’s wonderful to see.

Olate is another one of those Dania players who aren’t great in any certain area of the game, but very solid in everything and he plays within his game. I have always liked his toughness on the cancha and no matter where you put him on the roster he plays strong.

Solozobal must win all his games when I’m not watching. He must be a weekend player because I rarely get to watch on the weekends. J When I watch he puts in minimal effort and seems like he could care less. We have all been saying it for years now, what a waste of talent. Remember the fall down rebotes at the Citrus? Well I haven’t seen one from him since.

Urtaran is another pelotari who has brought his game along very nicely over the years. His catching from both sides has improved probably better than anyone’s over the last three years. BTW, I miss watching his brother Ochoa play, man what a crafty player he was.

Does anyone get more out of less than Sierra II? He plays the game very, very hard every point and has far less talent than many. His game is all effort and guts, very respectable.

Zulakia does a great job with his blog, what a wonderful asset to the jai alai community. He provides information that is very hard to come by in the states and has a wonderful writing style. He made some wonderful points in his last blog and I agree with everything he said about Christian. We could use another 100 Christian’s in the Pelota world. However, stateside the props have to go to Bill Swainfield(sp?). This gentleman has been around the sport covering it on the internet for a very long time now and is always open to wonderful conversation regarding the sport. He was doing what Ralph “tiger” did years ago and still maintains a wonderful website. You can visit him at jaialaiusa.net, a wealth of jai alai information or find him on Fronton. Always check the Fronton’s blogs and forum for great inside scoops and breaking news on the sport which you can’t find anywhere. Yes, jai alai needs salesman and Christian is a great asset as well as a great person. As for the other webmaster mentioned in that blog, well in my opinion, jai alai could use a lot less of that type of personality and mentality involved in the sport but for the time being I guess he serves his purpose.

Have a wonderful evening and hope everyone has a great evening. See you at Fronton and at the frontons;)!