I think that the majority of people reading and posting on this
site are under the impression that the Jai Alai players were part
of a union from the day the owners opened frontons in the US.
Let's be clear here: A Jai Alai union was created during the strike
with the assistence of the UAW. Tommyk, you can't compare the
contracts of MLB, America's national pastime, adored by millions
of people in the US, where salaries are astronomical, and players
and their families can live like royalty, and the contracts of
professional Jai Alai players, a foreign sport played by mostly
Basque men, and a few brave Americans, enjoyed and bet upon in
only a select few States that had/have frontons in the US, where
salaries were decent but only adequate enough to buy a house if
you were lucky enough to play during the height of the sport,
and if you weren't that lucky like me, that reward after 18 years
would be a coleman camping tent!!LOL! In Bridgeport and Milford,
the players managers and the management had more patience with
the injured players in giving them sufficient time to heal. I
agree with what you said about very little turnover in the CT
frontons, but don't forget that the owners could't find quality
players, especially in the last 7 years.
I could give you a bunch of names like Javier, Jose etc but you
won't recognize them because they never came back to the States,
however I'll give you a name that you will know: Ibar, he sustained
a wrist injury and he was told "Go home and good luck, I'm
going to bring somebody else"
I truly believe that the players managers had a major role in
the problems that we had over the years. I will never say that
we were saints, but the players managers were not there to protect
us, they were there to defend the Company and at the same time
protect their jobs at all costs. They were required to have a
few Americans on the roster. The Americans were not treated any
differently from us, it didn't matter if you were Chinese, Irish,
Portuguese or any other race. If the manager liked you, you would
be playing at the fronton for a long time.
Tommyk, I didn't have a personal problem with going home directly
after I was done playing and waiting for the final game to end
before going out at night. I do have this to say, speaking of
integrity, why didn't the management remove those scumbags who
called us cheaters from the fronton? That was acceptable?
I hope I have been helpful.
