jai alai

 

(hī'lī') , handball-like game of Spanish Basque origin. It is also called pelota. Jai alai is played on a three-walled court with a hard rubber ball that must be hurled against the front wall with the cesta, a wicker basket attached to the player's arm. The court is about 175 ft (53 m) long, 40 ft (12.2 m) wide, and 40 ft (12.2 m) high. Spectators sit behind a wire fence or plexiglass wall on the fourth side. To their right is the front wall, or frontis. The object is to hurl the ball against the front wall in such a way that it cannot be returned. The ball may hit the side or rear wall, but not the spectator wall, before striking the frontis. The ball, which reaches speeds of 150 mph (240 kph), is caught in the cesta and thrown in a continuous motion. Jai alai is played as either singles or doubles with scoring similar to that of court handball. Betting on games is popular; parimutuel wagering is legal in a few U.S. states. Jai alai is also popular in parts of Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, and the Philippines.

Jai-Alai (IPA: /ˈhaɪəlaɪ/ in English and IPA: [haɪɑlaɪ] in Basque) means "Merry Festival" in the Basque language. The term is used to denote a fronton (or open-walled arena) used to play a variety of Basque Pelota called Cesta Punta, and, more broadly, to the game itself. The ball is placed into play and volleyed by players wearing a wicker basket with a glove approximately 63 to 70 cm long. The game is characterized by the fast pace of play, the Basque Government promotes it as "the fastest game on Earth." A 125g-140g ball covered with goat-skin can travel up to 302 km/h (188 mph) (José Ramón Areitio at the Newport Jai Alai, Rhode Island, USA on 3 August 1979^[1][2])

The basket-glove (xistera in Basque, cesta-punta in Spanish) was introduced by Gantchiqui Dithurbide from Saint-Pée, France in 1860,^[1] and its long version by Melchior Curuchage, from Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1888.^[1]

Rules and play

The court (or cancha) for Jai-Alai consists of 3 walls (front, back, and left), and the floor between them in play. If the ball touches the floor outside these walls, it is considered out of bounds. Similarly, there is also a border on the lower 3 ft (about 1 m) of the front wall that is also out of bounds. The ceiling on the court is usually very high, so the ball has a more predictable path. The court is divided by 14 parallel lines going horizontally across the court, with line 1 closest to the front wall and line 14 the back wall.

A Jai-Alai game is played in round robin format, usually between eight teams of two players each or eight single players. The first team to score 7 or 9 points wins the game. Two of the eight teams are in the court for each point. The server on one team must bounce the ball behind the serving line, then with the cesta "basket" hurl it towards the front wall so it bounces from there to between lines 4 and 7 on the floor. The ball is then in play.

Teams alternate catching the ball in their cesta and throwing it "in one fluid motion" without holding or juggling it. The ball must be caught either on the fly or after bouncing once on the floor. A team scores a point if an opposing player:

• fails to serve so the ball bounces between lines 4 and 7 on the floor
• fails to catch the ball on the fly or after one bounce
• holds or juggles the ball
• hurls the ball out of bounds
• interferes with a player attempting to catch and hurl the ball

The team scoring a point remains in the court and the opposing team rotates off the court to the end of the list of opponents. Points usually double after the first round of play, once each team has played at least one point.

The players frequently attempt a "chula" shot, where the ball is played off the front wall very high, then reaches the bottom of the back wall by the end of its arc. The bounce off the bottom of the back wall can be very low, and the ball is very difficult to return in this situation.

In the United States, jai-alai enjoyed some popularity as a gambling alternative to horse racing, greyhound racing, and harness racing, and remains popular in Florida, where the game is used as a basis for parimutuel gambling at six frontons throughout the State: Dania Beach, Miami, Ocala, Fort Pierce, Orlando, and Hamilton County. The first jai-alai fronton in the United States was located at the site of Hialeah Race Course near Miami (1924). The fronton was relocated to its present site in Miami near Miami International Airport. Year round jai-alai operations include Miami Jai-Alai (the biggest in the world with a record audience of 15,502 people in 27 December 1975^[1]), Dania Jai-Alai and Hamilton Jai-Alai in North Florida. Seasonal facilities are: Fort Pierce Jai-Alai, Ocala Jai-Alai and Orlando-Seminole Jai-Alai. Inactive jai-alai permits are located: Tampa, Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach, and Quincy. One Florida fronton was converted from jai-alai to Greyhound Racing in Melbourne.

By contrast, jai-alai's popularity in the north-eastern and western United States waned as other gambling options became available. Frontons in the Connecticut towns of Hartford and Milford permanently closed, while the fronton in Bridgeport was converted to a Greyhound race track. A fronton in Newport, Rhode Island has been converted to a general gaming facility.

Jai-alai enjoyed a brief and popular stint in Las Vegas, Nevada with the opening of a fronton at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino; however, by the early 1980s the fronton was losing money and was closed by MGM Grand owner Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM Grand in Reno also showcased jai-alai for a very short period (1978-1980).

In an effort to prevent the closure of frontons in Florida, the Florida State Legislature passed HB 1059, a bill that changed the rules regarding the operation and wagering of poker in a Pari-Mutuel facility such as a jai-alai fronton and a greyhound and horseracing track. The bill became law on August 6, 2003.

The International Jai Alai Player Association-UAW Local 8868 is the recognized bargaining agent for jai-alai players in most Florida frontons. The union had also represented jai-alai players and fronton employees in Connecticut until its three frontons permanently closed, and in Rhode Island where at the behest of the gaming regulators, the Rhode Island Legislature abolished the playing of live jai-alai in favor of video lottery terminals.

Jai alai in popular culture

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• As a typical element of Florida, scenes of the Miami Jai Alai appeared in the title sequence of the TV series Miami Vice. A death among players was part of the plot of one episode, "Killshot", which aired during the 3rd season.
• In movies, jai-alai had a small role in The Substitute starring Tom Berenger (1996).
• The game was also played by Bud Spencer in the movie Odds and Evens (aka Trinity: Gambling for High Stakes) (1978).
• A game similar to jai-alai is featured in the Disney film, Tron (1982), where Kevin Flynn and Crom play in a wide arena on separate platforms made of concentric rings. The main differences between this version and the original game are that the ball is reflected from the ceiling before being caught by the opposing player; when the ball comes into contact with either platform it will destroy the ring it touches (exposing the steep drop below); and the game is played as a gladiatorial death match.
• The game was played notably by Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O during an episode of the MTV show Jackass (season 2), replacing the goatskin balls with oranges. Both suffered severe bruising and cuts to their lower legs as the oranges were hurled at their stationary backsides.
• The comic book hero, Blue Beetle once fought a man named Overthrow, who had collapsable cestas which hurled fast paced fireballs, a living reference to the game
• The game was also mentioned in two episodes (Love Sick and Lazlo Loves a Parade) of Cartoon Network show Camp Lazlo.
• Lenny Leonard of The Simpsons lives in a very fancy house which he is able to afford because one wall is the ending extreme of a Jai alai court.
• Mr. Burns of The Simpsons plays Jai alai after he gets a blood transfusion from Bart.
• A Chicago reggae/punk band called The Jai-Alai Savant makes many references to The Chicago Mastadons Professional Jai-Alai Team.
• In the NBC TV show "The Black Donnellys" Kevin Donnelly loses $5,000 betting on Jai Alai, a sport he knows nothing about.
• In the Futurama episode 'Parasites Lost', Hermes is seen eating popcorn from a Jai Alai cesta "basket"
• In an episode of The Weird Al Show, Al plays Jai Alai with Teri Garr.
• The game played during Neopets' "Altador Cup" plot is very similar to Jai Alai.
• In an episode of Nickelodeon's Fairly Odd Parents, The Crimson Chin, a comic book hero side character, trips an opponent with his chin during a celebrity Jai-Alai tournament. His opponent's knee is shattered in the fall, prompting him to become the Crimson Chin's arch-rival, The Bronze Kneecap.
• Jai alai is mentioned many times in the popular comic strip, FoxTrot, by Bill Amend.
• Jai alai (or just one of the words) appears frequently in crossword puzzles due to the high recurrence of vowels in its name. In fact, in a roughly ten-year survey of the New York Times daily puzzle, "Jai ___" (for ALAI) was found to be the single most common clue-and-answer pair, appearing 39 times exactly the same way.
• Jai alai is one of only two sports in the entire world that forbids left-handed play, on the grounds that changing hands would give players an unfair or dangerous advantage. (Polo is the other sport.)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d}
2. ^ Libro de los récords Guinness, page 258. It lists it as the fastest speed recorded in any ball game, comparing to 273 km/h (170 mph) of golf.

External links

• Florida Gaming Corporation Rules of Jai-Alai
• Dania Jai-Alai, Poker, Ponies & Jai-Alai, Dania Beach, Florida
• Fort Pierce Jai-Alai, Fort Pierce, Florida
• Hamilton Jai-Alai and Poker, Jasper, Florida
• Miami Jai-Alai, Miami, Florida
• Ocala Jai-Alai, Orange Lake, Florida
• Orlando Jai-Alai, Fern Park, Florida
• "The History of basque Pelota in the Americas" by Carmelo Urza
• "History of Tijuana Jai Alai"
• Documentary on Youtube **DEAD LINK**

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