Sport: Jai Alai - TIME
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In Miami. Lou Magnolia, baldheaded, eagle-beaked boxing referee, famed for his catlike springs and crouches and quick thinking in the ring, posed with Mayor Reeder, the Junior Chamber of Commerce band, and a jai alai squad on the steps of Miami's city hall last fortnight. Backed by one Sam Kantor, Magnolia is managing the Biscayne Fronton. Most of the Basque. Cuban and Mexican players in Miami use simplifications of their Latin names Martin, Blanco, Ramos, Lopez. The player called Fermin is the only known jai alai man who wears glasses. Passionately, northern visitors compare the merits of Charley and Antonio, favorites of the season last year. Like all jai alai players. Magnolia's youths live in a dormitory. They keep strict training, eat no dinner the nights they are to play. They wear blue and orange uniforms.
In Havana. Elicia Arguelles keeps a stable of 30 players15 topnotchers at $1,000 a month, 15 beginners at $300. Sometimes he pays a great imported player from Spain as much as $3.000 per month. Through the steep stands, filled with people in straw hats, linen suits and evening dress, under the glaring lights, bookmakers in red caps cry the betting odds as they change on the pari-mutuel system. The walls of the fronton amplify a babel of voices, shouts, steps, the loud breathing of the players, the click of the ball into the cestas and the mocking, metallic plang it makes when it hits the iron wainscots ("tell-tales") on the backwall. Havana players wear duck pants, blue or white shirts. On an average they are heavier, more experienced and higher paid in Havana than in the U. S. In Señor Arguelles' fronton there are two bars going all the time, each famed for special drinks. The Townsen Centre-bar Special is the favorite with U. S. visitors. Before and after a game and between "partidos" the bars are full. As soon as a player steps out to warm up the bars empty. Some good Havana players: Eguiliz ("Eggy") y Gutierrez, who is as big as Babe Ruth and moves with the same easy rhythm. and his rival. Lucio Minore. One of the best players in Cuba is 40 years old. Another is 54.
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