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I went to Jai Alai periodically when I lived in Tampa in the 80s; I had Cuban friends who were into it. It's a really interesting sport...a little like racquet
by kjs3 3y ago
I went to Jai Alai periodically when I lived in Tampa in the 80s; I had Cuban friends who were into it. It's a really interesting sport...a little like racquetball, only the ball is hard like a softball and moves at ballistic speeds. Getting hit was a Bad Day. And it's loud. I played a number of sports, and there was not a single moment I said "I wanna try that".
I guess I saw the beginning of the decline. It was as they report, mostly filled with well dressed Hispanic men obsessed with betting. But I never saw it more than 3/4 full. Shame it's on the out.
- TylerE 3y agoIt always seemed to me to be a lot like a slightly less offensive version horse racing, with much the same profile - e.g. 90% of people watching it only care because it's something to gamble on. Edit: Also reminds me a bit of what I beleive is called royal or court tennis, an extremely rare (there's only something like 30 playing venues in the world) variant of tennis that is played on a special enclosed court with some of the walls and ceiling being in play, and also certain parts of the walls are angled in specfic ways so apparently all kinds of chaos occurs. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Jesmond-Dene-tennis-court.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Jesmond-...
- sincerely 3y ago>90% of people watching it only care because it's something to gamble on. This is now the raison d'etre of the vast majority of esports (especially the non-tier-1 events/leagues)
- anthk 3y agoIn Spain the Quiniela, a soccer based lottery where you bet on match results over a week.
- kjs3 3y agoThe US has caught up with you...we now have a similar sort of sports betting (tho not called a 'lottery'). "Fantasy Soccer" is now a thing as well, unfortunately[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_sport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_sport
- anthk 3y agoWell, is not a "lottery" because is not random, you check boxes from a paper form made of 15 matches with these options: 1 - X -2 1: Home team wins X: A draw 2: Foreign team wins
- selimthegrim 3y ago“Real” tennis I think it goes by
- kjs3 3y agoThat's it. There's a Lucy Worsley series about Tudor England where she goes to the actual 'real tennis' court in Hampton Court where Henry VIII played and they do a bit of a demo with some folks in period costume (as Lucy does). A little bit like Jai Alai, maybe.
- joezydeco 3y agoslightly less offensive version horse racing, with much the same profile With one major difference - the horses could read their own odds.
- nkozyra 3y agoForever cemented in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0p6thEs1kM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0p6thEs1kM