The book was Called "Ballet with Bullets". It was a
history and a betting guide much different from the usual simplistic
stuff.
In manuscript form, it was about 150+ pages on standard typing
paper. I signed a contract with A.S. Barnes and they paid me something
up front. Then Barnes was sold to a California publisher who decided
not to publish.
I threatened to sue, but the contract had an arbitration clause,
so we went to arbitration.
During the hearing, the representative of the publisher said that
they decided to not publish after the MGM Grand fire, when their
fronton was not rebuilt. They said that that suggested jai alai
was no longer viable.
However, I was able to quickly show that their letter of cancellation
was dated several months BEFORE the fire.
Lying during an arbitration is like perjury in a court of law.
The arbitrator immediately ruled in my favor and awarded me 5
times what I had expected to make, had the book been published.
(Needless to say, I was elated.)
All that dragged on for several years, and by that time my literary
agent had died. Jai alai was suffering from the betting scandals,
and I just never pursued publishing it after that.
I still have the original typewritten copy somewhere. If the operator
of this website would like to post it, I'd be happy to send it
to him. I have no idea how difficult that would be, since I am
not a techie. Unfortunately, I wrote the book in the pre-PC days,
so I have no way to transmit it electronically.
I thought it was a pretty good book. It was fully illustrated
and contained game by game examples of how to bet. I received
a lot of help from the PR Directors of the local frontons, the
player managers, and especially from players like Joey, Bengoa,
and Churruca.
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