Wow Goiko, Excluding Garcia From The Upcoming Eusko Label Winter Series Is Pretty Outrageous Posted on October 4, 2026 at 01:33:27 AM by BigMucho
Nobody has played better jai alai than Garcia over the past few months, and he is the most physically gifted shot maker in the game who arguably has the highest upside ceiling of anyone in the sport. When Garcia is playing at his best, nobody right now can beat him.
And yet somehow Garcia isn't one of the top eight front courters chosen by Goiko to participate in the Winter Series partidos?!? What a joke. With the possible exception of Barandika, based on recent play Garcia should have literally been the first front courter chosen for these partidos. In point of fact, there shouldn't be any tournament hosted by the Jai Alai League over the next 10 years where Garcia isn't one of the featured delantero participants.
The thoroughly unaccomplished Goixerri who has never won anything gets chosen over Garcia? Please, you've got to be kidding me. Garcia is a 3x better player than Goixerri -- it's not even close and no reasonable observer would disagree. Even if Goiko is going to unfairly show bias in favor of choosing Spanish players, he at least should have selected Txanika who is also clearly better than Goixerri.
Olharan over Garcia? Have we forgotten that Garcia just dusted Olharan in the Internationaux Saint Jean De Luz and knocked him out of the tournament? Have we also forgotten that Garcia once again just eliminated Olharan from the Gant D'or De Biarritz en route to winning France's most prestigious title?
Laduche over Garcia? Gosh, it must be just me who saw the 30-19 b-slapping that Garcia just applied to Laduche in the Biarritz finals while a rightfully proud Lauren looked on. Greatness begets greatness you know. Was Goiko out at the movies that night? Seeing the Odyssey perhaps?
But maybe Goiko is just following the lead of the French jai alai hierarchy who themselves have been greatly misjudging and disrespecting Garcia. Is that what gave Goiko the cover he needs to hose Garcia? For example, the French cabal forced Garcia to have to qualify for the "Summer League" tournaments while the vastly inferior Libois was given an automatic spot. What??? And how in the world is Garcia not representing France at the upcoming World Championships in Colonia while Libois is going instead? The two best French front courters in the world are clearly Garcia and Johan, but neither was invited to Colonia? That's just stupidity. All the French needed to do was to pair Garcia and Basque and they would have won it all in Colonia.
The French are betting on the wrong horses. In their quest to promote young French players to future superstardom, they are constantly promoting players like Libois and Casparrus who haven't earned it and don't warrant it. At the time of the World Championship player selections, both Garcia and Johan were only 24 years old. Is that not young enough for you? Those are your young future superstars. Duh.
As an American outsider, I can speak freely about all this. The degree to which Basque politics often dictate player selections instead of merit -- at least around the margins -- really sucks. Jai alai fans want and deserve to see tournaments where all the best players are competing head-to-head, and a Winter Series that doesn't include Garcia falls far short of that ideal.
Garcia would have had a real chance of winning the Winter Series, but instead he's not even allowed to play.
Tiger's Jai-Alai Chalk Talk
