They missed the boat by not capitalizing on the magic of Arriaga.
They could have made him the "Golden Boy" and he might
have become the symbol of the sport.
Let's see:
Hockey had Bobby Hull
Baseball had Mickey Mantle
Football had Paul Hornung
... all "Golden Boys" or some variant of that.
So, then there's Arriaga - handsome, charismatic, perhaps the
best player in the game. But, no one took it and ran with it,
and the opportunity was lost.
Cigar Aficionado did do this neat article on him back in 2000.
Cigar
Aficionado - April, 2000 article
