Dhani Jones will try Jai Alai this Monday Night on the Travel Channel
by Josh Kirkendall on Apr 10, 2009 12:26 PM EDT
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PrintWe're not sure what Jai Alai is, but apparently in Northern Spain plays it, which is translated "the game of dodging death" and "ballet with bullets". After hours and hours of exhaustive reading and research (aka, a Wikipedia search), I learned how the game is played.
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 (called a "pelota") 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 going horizontally the second team. The winner of each point stays on the court to meet the next team in rotation. Losers go to the end of the line to await another turn on the court. The first team to score 7 points (or 9 in Superfecta games) wins. The next highest scores are awarded "place" (second) and "show" (third) positions, respectively. Playoffs decide tied scores.
This Monday, Dhani Jones will be introduced to the "400-year-old obsession of North Spain", which premiere's on Monday night at 9pm on the Travel Channel.
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Jai Alai
Josh,
This sport has been featured on jackass, except they used oranges? (i think so) and pegged steve o and johnny knoxville. It can kill you if it it hits you in the head. It is played with a long curved wooden hand paddle in which the curve of the paddle is similar to a turn in nascar, half pipe like, which accelerates the speed of the ball coming out. They were exploding oranges all over knoxville and he had heavy heavy bruising, so it’s pretty dangerous. It’s like archaic lacrosse except no one is catching that ball.
The Basques, who’s game this is(saski-pilota, which translates to basketball), would be insulted by having it called in anyway Spanish. The pelota is, I believe, hard rubber and is hurled with a curved wicker basket with a handle at speeds up to the world record of 186mph. I never did grasp how it’s scored even when my Gramps would drag me to the fronton when I visited him in Florida.
by IgnatiusJReilly on Apr 10, 2009 2:12 PM EDT reply actions
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