Word: pelotas
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...Lounging behind a protective wire screen, the fans sip daiquiris and cheer wildly for players whose names they cannot pronounce. "Come on, Choo Choo!" they yell to Churruca, an acrobatic Basque whose specialty is running straight up a side wall to pick off a pelota 15 ft. above the floor. "Attababy, Orby!" they scream to Orbea, who can slam the ball into the front wall so accurately that it will hit a handkerchief halfway back down the court on the rebound...
...well as happy. After a few years, shoulders and arms are noticeably deformed by the strain, and biceps bulge almost as large as Sonny Listen's. Few professionals risk playing past 35. When their legs tire and their reflexes slow down, they are likely to catch a pelota where it hurts-like Erdoza, a Basque champion of the World War I era, who was known as "El Fenomeno" until he put a little extra on a forehand one day and wound up whistling through a baseball-sized gap in his front teeth. Pelotaris like to compare themselves to bullfighters...
...game is beisbol. The lanzador stands on the lomita and throws the pelota to the bateador, who tries to hit it over the heads of the jardineros with a mighty swing of his palo. If he hits it over the fence, he gets a cuadrangular and the home-town fanáticos go wild with...
After a wartime layoff, during which he served as an infantryman in the French army, Urruty went home to concentrate on pelota. By then he could whip all comers. Once one of his ardent admirers presented him with a big cigar. Deeply honored, Urruty returned the compliment. He gave his fan, Sir Winston Churchill, a chistera as a souvenir...
...Urruty's soft drop shots fell just out of reach; his low returns were unplayable. After two hours and 54 minutes of the murderous pace, the groggy Spaniards were thoroughly beaten, 60-50. Jean Urruty and his team were pelota champions of the world...