Let's suppose that Goikoetxea, Rekalde, Lopez and Irastorza took part last weekend Citrus Tournament in Ocala. What would it happen? Would Pancho and Gino still had a chance to win the doubles quiniela?... Alliez in singles?
One thing is clear. Parity among the participants would be non existent, a joke. Second, the over all quality of the game would it be much higher. Far away.
According to DPOE: "As you can tell by the results of yesterday's action... The results were not a fluke....all teams made many entrances on the court and each had their chance to win.
All players are very good and you could call this parity".
Let' see. Was the quality of play real good in Ocala? can we talk about great jai alai?...
Sometimes, parity can hide mediocrity. What we see looks good because the group is homogeneous, compact, the pelotaris are pretty much alike, they adjust one to another.
Not always though. In the 70s in Miami parity in the roster even though was the dominant note. The late games players formed an unbelievable bunch of stars. I'm talking about players like Asis, Juaristi, Joey, Remen, Zulaica, Mendi, Alberdi, Uriarte. Same thing in the back. Salazar,, Javier, Irigo, Arratibel. That was parity showing its best face.
Years later same thing happened in Hartford, Miami's most of the players conformed another unbelievable roster. Parity at his best, again.
1982 in Bridgeport was a complete different scenario. Two players, Bolibar and Uriarte went wild. Caused by a tremendous competition between the two. They destroyed stars like Ondarres, Egurbide, Castro II, Guisasola, Orbea. A fierce rivalry between Bolibar and Uriarte offered the best of jai alai. They won most of the games. The rest, great payers as well, had to look for the leftovers. Quality vs. parity.
While playing in Tampa sometimes we used to go other frontons. I remember in Daytona how I got impressed by the level of play. It looked so good the way they played that made hesitate I would qualify to play in such roster. I say this keeping in mind that Daytona's roster was an inferior one comparing to Tampa, Dania, not to mention Miami.
Parity deceives the eye of the audience in a positive way. It makes players look better than what they really are. That's what happened to me in Daytona and what it may happen to DPOE in Ocala.
The proof to that when a top player from Daytona would go to a superior roster
that particular player became usually an early games player. (Inclan was an exception).
Hard-core fans or casual aficionados, we all want to see the best pelotaris on the court. The ones that do different things, the ones that outclass the rest. I'm talking about Goikoetxea, Lopez, Irastorza. Bolibar in Tampa and years after in Bridgeport along with Uriarte. The ones that besides having talent march a step ahead.
In response to this article I would say thats its alot easier to make comments or assertions having watched the action moreso than just reporting on it from thousands of miles or kilometers away. Its really irresponsible to accuse inferiority...to try and diminish this achievement by two guys not from the Homeland...one a Mexican who picked up the basket at age 8 and another, an American God-forbid, who started later in life but has worked extremely hard at his trade.
ReplyDeleteTo ease the debate, one would have to ask the local opinions one trusts. Maybe opinions from common names like Elizegi....like Egi....like Hernandez....like Solozabal. These names are familiar and they all had front row seats to this play.
My last wish is to see here...in this space.... the same class other familar names showed on Saturday. One may have heard of an Arriaga or a Lopez.....these two showed class by picking up the phone 2 hours after the event and graciously congratulating the frontcourt winner. Neither asked the winner whether he thought the Championship was tainted, no, they thought that would be in poor taste.
Reading this article, unfortunately I get the same poor taste.
A quick analysis: Keys to Pancho and Gino’s win.
ReplyDeleteMinimal unforced errors by both players, especially Pancho.
Gino’s strong right side did some damage.
Pancho killed a couple of crucial points.
Familiar competition, another three teams from Ocala competing.
Playing in a favorable post (Post 1)
Would agree with everything with the elements of the last post except "playing in a favorable post (Post 1)".
ReplyDeleteAll teams, including the pre-match favorites of Egi/Hernandez must have appeared on the court 5 or 6 times in this game. Each team had the availability to take this 10 point match so starting post positions wasn't nearly as critical as your standard spectacular American-style quinella.