Speaking of snow and cold Posted on December 1, 2023 at 09:30:34 AM by Forty-Year-Fan
Speaking of snow and cold.We left Bridgeport Jai-alai in 94/95. It closed
to make way for the dog track- which is now also closed- been closed for many
years.
Milford went all year round - minus a few weeks here and there. Milford being
a summer venue, never had a need for a humidifier up in the ceiling. The first time we
we started playing in the cold weather was aweful. Like Benny said we were wearing under shirts
under our jerseys. The jai- alai was aweful. The pelota just wouldn’t react with everything being
so cold. Very hard to hit the back wall as a backcourter. The points would last longer . It was boring
jai- alai.Managemnt finally added the humidifier and it was a big difference- I’m sure it wasn’t cheap to install.
The humidifier system had a sensor on it and sometimes would turn on in the middle of a point.
For years after- the first time it went on in the winter, a lot of use got sick from all the accumulated dust over
the summer raining down on the court. A lot of players coughing, sneezing etc.
Then there is the story about the tennis net management adding to the ceiling for a season. During the mass exodus days
of jai-alai betters going to the two Connecticut casinos - our downfall- the bettors said that the jai-alai game is too long.
They would rather go to Foxwoods or Mohegan because it’s quick betting. So managmemt asked, what can we do to speed up the
game? So they added the dreaded tennis net- which hung down about 8-10 feet from the ceiling around the overserve line. They thought that by eliminating the higher throws to the back court it would speed up the game. It sucked. You would be having a great point back and fourth- the crowd is into it - and then - “tick”. Someone would throw a ball and it would just glance the bottom of the stupid net ending the point- so frustrating!
BTW I need to update my user name lol- should be 50 year fan - years are flying by!
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