“One Shot” of Matt Ball Does What Spiderman Couldn’t
Here’s an interesting event that occurred almost 5 years ago (November 21, 2017) at the St. Pete Puryear Park that we had never publicized before. It’s a little slow right now in the jai-alai world, so we felt this is a good time to share it.
The entire event was filmed after a few kids were kicking a soccer ball in an adjacent court that landed on the overhead netting above the jai-alai cancha.
Incredibly, some kid thought he was Spiderman and climbed up the fence to retrieve the ball. After several minutes of trying to get the ball down, our own Magic Mike (The Computer Man) came over and attempted to help get the ball down by throwing one of the jai-alai game balls (a Matt Generation 4 ball).
Bear in mind, there is a very large and loose protective netting where the soccer ball was “resting” in.
A soccer ball is about 28 inches in circumference and almost 9 inches in diameter and weighs about one pound.
The Matt Jai-alai ball is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and weighs a fraction of the soccer ball.
The odds of picking up a cesta and throwing the Matt ball underneath it with enough pressure and precision to knock it off the overhead net would seem like a million to one.
But not for Magic Mike, who’s been known to knock down Matt balls that get stuck up there once in a while better than anybody. (Current over/under odds is 3 shots)
Spiderman tried frantically to shake the net and get the ball off… to no avail, but then on ONE throw, Magic Mike wacked the soccer ball, causing the lost soccer ball to come flying off the court. All caught on tape.
The film was sent to America’s Funniest Home Videos, the popular ABC hit TV show – now in its 32nd season. Incredibly, the video clip was approved to air on the show, but producers wanted sign offs from the parents of Spiderman and the girl seen in the video who yelled out “He thinks he’s Spiderman!” before they could air it. Unfortunately, the kids were long gone a few minutes after getting their soccer ball back and never seen again.
