Found this site on Google, while looking up any available info
on 'Jai Alai'...Which leads me to my sad realization
that Jai Alai in America seems to be dying in a major way. When
I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's, Jai Alai, at least
for us kids, was as vital as baseball. The Milford Amateur Jai
Alai courts were open with instruction/training readily available.
A cesta could be bought in a sports shop. The Milford Fronton
was 5 minutes away, the Bridgeport Fronton 10 minutes away. Never
got to Hartford or Newport, but who needed to, with the 2 local
Frontons so close by. We even had a pro player (Augie Brozek)
come from Turkey Hill School in Orange 10 minutes away...Little
by little, it seems Jai Alai just faded from peoples memories...Perhaps
it was a 70's 'Fad' like the mood ring or pet rock?
Let's face it, Americans have a zero attention span, and very
little love of history. And I remember, while my buddies and myself
poured over every encyclopedia we could find to learn about these
mysterious Basque people, who even neighboring Europeans didn't
quite 'get'----they were our heroes, like the Oakland
A's, or Led Zeppelin, or whatever....But most Americans at the
time even, thought the players were foreign 'Oddities'---no
different than a racing horse or dog....sad, but true. And then
the Casinos...replace the players with other gambling oddities...Since
Jai Alai was a sport in which legalized state-sanctioned gambling
was a partner, the consensus was that it was a 'game'
to be gambled on, an exotic oddity cheapened by wagering, not
the truly beautiful, intense sport that it is. A passion for the
players, fans, everyone...I'm sorry if this pessimistic diatribe
is too negative, but it breaks my heart to see the empty Fronton,
and deserted Amateur Jai Alai building every day on the way to
work, and hear most people old enough to remember say, "Who
cares, we have the casinos now"....Well, I CARE! And none
of this has stopped me from loving the sport, it's just that it's
so damn hard to find anyone that cares anymore----that is until
I found this site, and a few others...Hopefully I haven't offended
anyone, I truly love this beautiful sport, and never realized
how good we had it here until it was gone for good!
Stephen Ceslik, Milford, CT. 06460
