No "Bargains" In Jai-Alai

The city of Barcelona (Spain) back in the 1970's was a temporary station for young and veteran jai-alai players waiting for a contract to play somewhere else; usually, the destination was Florida. The fronton, the Principal Palacio, was located in Las Ramblas, the heart of the city, the epicenter of our limited universe. Even our pension was in a nearby alley. We spent most of the day walking up and down by the the Ramblas and playing pool and, for the rest of the day, watching partidos in the fronton. It was the cheapest choice of spending so many free hours because our income was so low that we were always broke, especially by the second week of the month. Salaries for a teenager like me were about 900 pesetas for each partido, around seven or eight dollars. However, Barcelona was the best university to learn the skills of jai-alai because everybody played an average of twelve partidos per month. Each evening daily four games were scheduled which gave us the chance of watching play a lot of players. Orbea I used to say that you always can learn some skill fron any player, even from the weakest, because everybody has some special ability. Therefore, the Principal Palacio was the right spot, plenty of partidos to watch, all kind of players to observe.
Before the winter season some players would leave the city heading Florida. Others would come back from the Basque Country, these were the aces, the stars, the ones that could not go back to Florida because they were included in a blacklist as a result of the 1968 jai-alai strike. The list included players like Ondarres, Bengoa, Egurbide, Churruca, Chimela... We were delighted to see them playing. Sometimes even the intendente, the matchmaker, would include some of us in a mixed combination. The first time I played a partido estelar was with Guisasola against Lekube and Echave II. I was sixteen years old and for me it was like a dream. The night before I did not sleep at all though, but it was worth.
We saw so many partidos that, sometimes, we used to be waiting for the next day schedule to see if there was any "bargains" in it. A real chance of making some extra pesetas from betting, like fishermen waiting on a fishing pier awaiting for an exceptional catch. An unbalanced combination, one that made you think that there was a mistake. How can the intendente can make such a combination? We would comment unable to find a reasonable explanation. "There is no way on earth that this team can beat this other one. It is a real bargain"!
Next day just before the beginning of the chosen partido we would go to the empty upper part of the fronton where nobody could see you ready to commit the "sin". The temptation of making some extra money even though, the players, had forbidden to bet, was irresistible. Down there close to the cancha facing the audience was the line of corredores, the bookies. One of them, a chunky red cheeked former player named Lekeitxo, was our contact. Betting on jai-alai partidos has its own body language. Touching your forehead with one hand means you are for the red team; touching one arm with the opposite hand means you favor the blue. Even though the opportunity of making extra money was formidable our economy did not allow us to bet more than about 900 pesetas, six or seven dollars. Nevertheless to say that I hardly made any money out of those "bargains". Something unexpected always happened. My favorite pair would play their years' worst game; someone would break his cesta; the other team would perform in a way they never did it before... The intendente would put in play some kind of pelotas that truncated my previous calculus. It was frustrating to see that according to us "bargains" never succeeded, even though we thought we had controlled all kind of factors. It was our destiny at that time to spend the month with little or no money at all. There is a saying in Spanish: "partido robado partido al otro lado". Do not expect any "bargains" in jai-alai. I am telling you.