Here's your proof, right here!
Posted on September 11, 2025 at 02:02:31 PM by Craig G
Earth-shaking news, Aritz-Lopez are better than Erik-Chasio.
Citrus 2014
1 Aritz - Lopez Miami 10
2 Angel - Manex Dania 6
3 Goikoetxea - Cisneros Miami 4
4 Solozabal - Enbil Dania 1
5 Tambour - Yeche France 1
6 Olharan - Larru Orlando 1
7 Egi - Erkiaga II (Spain) 0
8 Erik - Chasio Dania 0
Seriously, I made the point that to get at the truth, you need to go beyond the superficial. Otherwise, at face value, Egi stinks, too. And the year before, finishing with ZERO points is another dud named Goiko.
In fact, if you go into Jai-Alai Heaven and peruse the Citrus results from 2006 - 2014, a decent chunk, you don't need to be Sherlock to observe that of those 9 trials, any time Goiko did not partner with Lopez, he failed to win. As I said, in 2013, partnering with Irastorza, he ended with a score of zero.
So if the GOAT of jai-alai, at the height of his power, only won 2 out of 9, and ONLY when he had the top back in the world, what does that tell you about the accuracy of using the Citrus results as convincing proof of ability?
And while we are at it, how many times did Aritz win the Citrus doubles without Lopez? And did anyone notice that Aritz didn't need Chasio as his partner to end up last place with zero? No, he was able to accomplish that with Irastorza.
So the people who cite these tournaments as slam dunk proof of ability level haven't put in much effort to think thru the implications.
A single contest where you might only play 2 stinking points does not prove a helluva lot.
That's why I gave the chess tournament format as a counter-example. It's a case of going from one measurement extreme to another.
Tiger's Jai-Alai Chalk Talk
