May 1st: A Special Day

Tomorrow May1st, Saturday. A very special day for a lots of people, for me too. 36 years ago I did my debut at Tampa. I was an excited 17 years old boy with number 36 on my back. A dream come truth , I have to say, tacky as it may sound.

  That night the fronton was a full house, sold out. As anybody can imagine, I was nervous as hell, kind of a zombie. I was programmed to play three games, that was usual with players making their debut.

  I remember that I played one of the quinielas number eight with Durango. Do you remember Durango? a strong left-hand player with a terrible serve?... I´m just kidding. We won that quiniela unbelievable as it may be. Well, Durango won the game. I just stayed there watching them play.

 Those were the days when Bolibar exploded, he was a playing machine, ambitious. A player with a hell of a game but little name in the sport. Big Al was there too. Pablo was second after Bolibar. Laca and Gorroño, best back-courters.

  A guy named Larsen was the general manager at Tampa Jai Alai. I was impressed with the Cadillac he used to drive. For a newcomer from the Basque, seeing such huge cars was kind of a shock. Larsen after the games used to go for a drink to Pat's, a night-club on Gandy Boulevard, so we the players.
The local band played there songs like "uga-chaka-uga-uga"... and "seasons in the song", these days those were some of the hits.
 
    We had to leave the place before 2:30 A.M. unless we would be fined. There was Larsen to enforce the "law".

   Ramon, remember him? a short back-court that hardly missed a ball and had a tremendous left-hand rebote? He was one of my roommates. Ramon cooked best paellas in town while listening Luis Mariano sang in French: "ouu-la-la-la c'est magnifique"...

My first season was like discovering a new world, indeed was a real world for a teenager like me.

Tampa, Ocala after that. Eight years went by before I signed for Bridgeport.

  I have an special feeling for Ocala. First time I saw the place I was kind of amazed. Who in this world but Berenson could build a fronton in a place like that, in the middle of nowhere. Well, the Ranch Motel, where Bolibar used to live, was there. There was a big lake around too, Orange Lake, full of alligators larger than Soriano and Sebastian attached together, by the way.

  Yes, before you get there from Gainesville, 441 road (?)  there was a town with a funny name: Micanopy.

Gainesville, oh Gainesville!! there we used to live while playing in Ocala. I loved the place.  Great memories. Nice quite place when students were on vacation. Because the University of Florida is there, in Gainesville. I took some summer classes there, great buildings in a nice campus.

After the games I used to go to a bar  I really liked. It was located in downtown, called The Backstage, who knows what`s in there nowadays, have a beer or two among students, practicing my poor english when I had the chance.

 Well, tomorrow, May 1st,  is going to be a special day for me. Jon my son will be making his debut at Dania with number 54 on his back, Zulaika on the program.

  Same day, tomorrow, May 1st, Katya, my niece, is graduating from college in Gainesville, Universtiy of Florida.  Funny, isn't it?

   Good luck both of you.