Word: cornblit
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...Joey Cornblit is a nice Jewish boy from Miami, and his mother has a complaint. Her son the jai-alai player is the hottest betting commodity in town. Not only is he the first American to equal the Basque masters of the sport, he is, at 22, a reigning champion. Since around $350,000 is wagered each performance in the fronton where Joey holds sway, Mrs. Cornblit, a metalworker's wife, has been besieged by telephone calls: "Did Joey eat his breakfast?" "Did he sleep well...
...answers are reassuring, but the emphatic reply comes on court. Last year Cornblit was the overall winner at Miami's World Jai-Alai, the premier palace of the game. In the second month of a season against 46 of the top professional players in the world, Joey again leads in overall wins (32) and front-court doubles championships (8) and has a shot at the singles title as well. No player has ever won the triple crown of jai-alai in Miami, but observers-and rabid bettors-believe Joey has a chance. Says Betting Clerk Emilio Posada: "There...
While jai-alai has been played for centuries in the mountains of Spain-where boys begin strapping on the huge, curved wicker cesta as toddlers-the game is played mainly at the $2 window in the U.S. In Florida, minors are barred from frontons, but as a youngster Cornblit got around the rules by climbing to the roof and staring through a vent at the leaping, whirling players below. After three years of instruction, primarily from a Cuban coach, he won a bronze medal at the 1971 World Championships at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. He was just...
...Cornblit's playing style perfectly complements the short (7 points, v. 30-35 points in Spain) matches played for American bettors. With the emphasis on the killing shot in these truncated contests, Joey's fierce approach to the game is now imitated by younger players, Basque as well as American. He keeps in shape with a daily exercise regimen to relieve the strain of an old back injury and settles down twice a day for soothing sessions of Transcendental Meditation. The combination, he believes, should keep him at the top for another decade. To the dismay of opponents...
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