The Partido Is Over For Barrondo

Sad news. One of the finest catchers of the last decades has decided to quit pro jai-alai. During last year´s summer season, while playing with Goikoetxea, Barrondo threw a right-hand shot when something tore in the biceps. Pain crippled him. Barrondo, like others, should gracefully yield to the judgment of years. Retire. Not this way though. This is not what he wanted; this is not what he deserves.
Barrondo played for many seasons in Tampa (Florida), Mexico and the Basque Country. Right now he is well over forty years old, but still had a lot of jai-alai in his cesta. His fuel tank is still full of diesel, that was the kind of stuff he used to move around the cancha; but his right arm broke, badly.
Barrondo was not the type of player that menaced the opponent with arms of mass destruction. Quite the contrary, he was rather a technical player, what we call in Jai-Alai´s lingo: a "Pelotari". A pure jai-alai player. Someone that has some kind of radar in his head, someone tha tknows how to move on the cancha, like bats do at night among trees.
Another player that reminds me of Barrondo was Garamendi, a player for Miami and Hartford. Same style, good positioning on the court, finest soundless smooth and easy "enceste" (catching tha ball). Kind of player that any front-courter dreams to play with. Garamendi told me once how he acquired such a nice ability getting the pelota into the cesta. When he was just a kid in Markina they used to practice with tennis balls instead of real Pelotas. If you ever tried to catch a tennis ball with a cesta, you know that is a terrible frustrating under taking, the dam ball bounces out of the cesta unless you move the wrist the way yhat Barrondo, Garamendi and Elorrio used to.
I played against Barrondo whe he was a teenager, Bolibar was his partner and Elorrio was mine. Throughout the entire partido the young prospect only lost three balls; he already knew how to play like a real veteran. They beat us ptretty badly.
I saw him playing a Pro-Am partido last year at Durango. This time a seventeen year old front-courter was his partner. Barrondo protected of the young prospect like a father protects his son, leading the kid through victory. This time, too, Barrond only missed three balls. It could not be any other way.
The Partido is over for a true "Pelotari". Barrondo, one of the finest catchers in decades, a player that any front-courter dreamed to play with, is abandoning the canchas. Not the way he wanted, not the way he deserves.