Love your posts, milfordfan, but I have a couple of points to make about this one.
Football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer differ from jai-alai in that in those sports, fans usually attend a single game. In jai-alai, fans attend a performance, which is comprised of multiples games. Each individual contest is still called a game, and 'performance' is the term used to denote the group of games played in one session. There is no need for such a term in the other sports, since the entire event consists of one game. As for why the word 'performance' was chosen, I would guess it probably was the best word available in terms of meaning and positive effect. They could have used 'session', but that sounds more like work than fun. I agree that jai-alai probably was considered a gentlemanly sport, but I don't think the use of the word 'performance' is related to that.
One other thing, certainly of less importance....I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the phrase 'hockey match'. I've been a hockey fan since I was ten years old, and it has always been 'hockey game'.
And as for your demeanor at Aqueduct, if we ever meet up, ask me about the time my temper got the better of me at Belmont! :-)
