~, 1lor the athlete and the sportsman.

THE WORLD'S FASTEST

LAST SEPTEMBER New York promoter built an arena City was treated to something which he called his " of a surprise when two well­ Jai-Alai." Translated into Eng­ known promoters remodeled the lish, Jai-Alai, which is pro­ old Hippodrome into a Cuban nounced "Hi-Li," means "a Fronton and introduced the merry festival" or "a happy Spanish game of Jai-Alai there. feast." The opening night was a com­ The pelotas are all made by plete sell-out, and 3900 excited hand and are worth $12.00 fans jammed the rafters, at a apiece. They are about three $7.70 top, to cheer the game's quarters the size of a debut. Since that time, Jai-Alai and are made of hard rubber, has been put on about four covered with twine and two times a week to an average au­ thicknesses of baby goat skin. dience of between 15 00 and They are as lively as a golf , 2000 persons, although on Sa­ even though they weigh as turday and holiday nights, the attendance jumped to around much as a billiard ball and are 2500. By January 1, the pro­ almost as hard. When thrown moters had realized $250,000 by an expert, the pelota travels on their investment, which was 110 miles an hour, which is 40 better than breaking even, and miles an hour faster than Wal­ announced their intention of ter Johnson ever threw a base­ continuing the attraction indef­ ball. The average Jai-Alai initely-until the close of the match uses up half a dozen World's Fair anyway. , as the slightest scratch pre­ Jai-Alai was first played in vents them from :flying true. Brazil 300 years ago and a Jes­ Each ball is re-covered after a uit priest, returning to Spain, match. Whenever a pelota hits brought the game with him. It a player in the head, especially was an instant success there, es­ if it's going at full speed, it's pecially in the Basque district pretty sure to split open his where it flourished like a Green skull. Jai-Alai players have oft­ Bay tree. It was then called jue­ en been killed in. Spain and Cu­ go de pelota, or ball game, and ba, but the 35 accidents at the it didn't acquire its present name Hippodrome so far have been until 1900 when a Havana of the minor variety.

MAY, 1939 13 The cestas, or baskets, are are played with two or four woven of Spanish and Brazil­ players, the server bouncing the ian reeds, and a good one lasts ball against the forward wall about 90 days. The most im­ to start play. This wall is called portant part is the frame which Frontis and the rear wall rebote. is made of a single piece of espe­ The main object of the game is cially-seasoned wood. Each ces­ to throw the ball from the cesta ta has 13 ribs, made of willow against the Frontis so that the from the swamps of Brazil. opponents cannot return it. The These ribs are the main support ball may be taken on the fly or of the basket and once one is on the first bounce and a top­ damaged, the cesta is discarded. flight player has a whole cesta­ When a player first takes up the ful of trick shots with which game he picks an individual size to confound his opponents. and shape of basket for his own, Some of the better known in­ the same way ball players pick clude the rebote, where the play­ out their bats and gloves. The er allows the ball to pass him cesta weighs between 15 and 25 and then runs back to flip it ounces and is attached to the off the back wall; the drop, hand by a carefully fitted leath­ where the player hits the front er glove which is sewed to the and side walls simultaneously basket. The cesta is then tied to so that the pelota drops dead on the wrist by an imported tape the spot; and the carom, where called Falla. This, w o u n d the player bounces his return around the wrist and basket a against two or three walls ac­ dozen times, prevents the bas­ cording to the angle and speed ket from slipping off the hand. of the throw. Some players even All cestas, incidentally, are right­ put "English" on their shots so handed since, the side wall be­ that the returning balls spin out ing on the players' left, left­ of the opponents' cesta when handers would find themselves caught. at a great disadvantage. During the match, three The playing court is con­ judges sit inside the netted en­ structed of a special concrete closure to rule on all claims of called gunite and is the only fouls. When the two associate substance known which success­ judges disagree, the chief judges, fully withstands the constant who wears full dress evening battering of the Jai-Alai pelota. clothes, makes the final decision. The three walls and the floor All three judges hold what look are the game's playing surfaces, like trout nets in their hands and balls hitting either the net which are used for self-protec­ or the ceiling are dead. Matches tion from the pelota. The usual

14 PANORAMA match runs 20 points and every judges for fighting, breaking time the ball is put in play a chairs, tossing "bean balls"­ point is made by one side or an extremely dangerous pastime the other. According to Spanish -and swearing. They carry tradition, the crowd al ways their personal grudges into the stands for the final point of a dressing rooms and there is al­ match. ways a wonderful free-for-all The players average from 16 there after a hotly-contested to 3 0 years of age and all are in match. The judges' word is law the pink of condition. Jai-Alai on the court and it is baked up is a very exacting sport, and by fines running from $2.50 speed, endurance, and skill are for a minor oath to $10.00 for three very nec~ssary attributes. one of a more personal nature. The players keep fairly strict The other misdemeanors are training at all times and rarely punished according to the whim eat a heavy meal until after the of the judges. They, incidental­ night's matches have been ly, receive $400 a month for played. Most of them are paid their work. in the neighborhood of $300 a Under the terms of the Span­ month, which is about what a ish Association, which controls good minor league baseball 9 5 per cent of the frontons of player gets for his chores in a the world, Jai-Alai players class A league. "Babe" Guiller­ must always give their best. If mo, nick-named the "Babe Ruth the Association ever catches any of Jai-Alai," is the highest paid of them cheating, throwing a member of the Hippodrome sta­ game, loafing, breaking training ble, receiving $1,000 a month. rules or conducting himself in For seven years he was the Jai­ a manner both unbecoming and Alai champion of the world and detrimental to the best interests only lost his title to Piston last of the game, he is barr~d for life year. A couple of years ago, in from every fronton under its a match in Havana, Guillermo -jurisdiction. He has no recourse slugged a judge over a disputed or appeal from this sentence. point and the authorities won't The Association takes the word let him compete there now un­ of the complaining official as til he apologizes, a thing which gospel. In addition, the offend­ Guillermo, who is a pretty hot­ ing player also forfeits his rights tempered fellow, says he will to an old-age pension from the never do. Association. Jai-Alai players all Jai-Alai players are a temper­ chip in from 5 to 10 per cent of amental lot anyway and they their salaries into the Associa­ are always being fined by the tion's pension fund so that they

MAY, 1939 15 will have something to care for games, an announcer instructs them when they finally hang up the spectators in the intricacies their cestas. R~tirement from of cheering and razzing the active play is more or less com­ players in Spanish, and in no pulsory after a player reaches time the Hippodrome echoes 35, although some, like 46- and re-echoes with encouraging years-old Maguregui, seemingly "arriba's" and disparaging "pei­ go on forever. pa's" The best place to sit, in­ To encourage competition cidentally, is at the extreme and to make players outdo sides and high up, as otherwise themselves, the promoters post the chin muscles are worked to bonuses of from $30.00 to death watching the flight of the $50.00 to the winners of the pelota. - Bill Stern, condensed evening's matches. During the from Listener's Digest.

THE DICTIONARY defines the word stamina as the power to endure fa­ tigue, privation and disease--capacity to hold out under any and all conditions. In the history of medicine there stands out to this day the name of one man whose stamina, even unto death, gave us our first knowledge of the human anatomy. This man was Michael Servetus, who lived and died in the sixteenth century. He it was who discovered the secret of our pulmonary circu­ lation; that our blood entered the right side of our heart, passed through our lungs and returned to the left side of the heart through tiny valves. The facts that the researches of Servetus developed were wholly con­ trary to the accepted beliefs o.f his time and, by declaring these facts, he suffered the wrath of the most powerful influences. A price was put upon his head. He became a fugitive, and in the city of Genoa he was seized and tried as a heretic. Offered the boon of life if he would renounce his convictions, Servetus refused. He had the stamina to maintain what his scientific observations had convinced him was right, and so Servetus died that a true physiological process might become known, and that thereby we might have a better understanding of the workings of our bodies.-Edward Parrish, M.D., in Successful Living.

16 PANORAMA