Did Joey Eat?

Jai-alai's Jewish superstar devours all opponents

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?"

Her 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's a fanaticism at the window when Joey's playing."

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 15, but his lightning reflexes and devastating "kill" shots--150-m.p.h. caroms that whistle off two walls and the floor before bouncing beyond his opponents' reach --made him the first American winner in international competition. His rebote is among the best in the game, a single fluid motion as he turns to scoop the ball bouncing off the back wall into the lip of the cesta, twists and flings it toward the front wall. He turned professional as a senior in high school, promptly picking up a rooting section of squealing groupies. (He is engaged to marry a former secretary at World Jai-Alai Fronton in May.)

His skill soon won him the respect of the players as well--and an income of about $80,000 a year. Says fellow American Armando Gonzalez: "His remate [backhand carom] is devastating, a knockout punch. There's no defense." An old Basque adversary, Jose Solaun, agrees: "Make a mistake against him and you're dead." Acknowledgment has sometimes been grudging, however. Jai-alai, long dominated by the Basques, is a clique-ridden world that does not suffer outsiders gladly. Solaun admits that his countrymen distance themselves from the handsome young American: "There is a resentment and coolness, a feeling that nobody can play the game like us." Another observer puts it more bluntly: "Every time he wins, they climb the walls. They feel this is their game and it bothers the hell out of them." Some of the Basques make good-natured fun of his contact lenses and call him Ciego (blind man).

It does not bother Joey. "Like it or not," he says, "I'm here." And here with a passion: "Out there, everyone is an enemy. It's fierce competition and I'm out for blood. You've got to want to eat the ball. I'm out to kill every point. Everybody wants to win, but I want it a little more."

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, Joey maintains that the best is still to come. "I haven't hit my stride yet." Besides, he sleeps well and always eats his breakfast.

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