The one whereby the players have a wooden (I think) tube shaped extension they stick on their arm and slide/server the ball forward with great power. They used them on MTV's Jackass to fire oranges at over 100+ mph towards people.

Pelota (sp?) very popular in S.America.

Spot on mate - appreciate it as we were looking every where to find the damn name.

do you think pelota is spanish for throw or pelt?

It's called "pelota vasca". vasca refers to someplace in spain (el pais vasco) I think. pelota means ball.

http://www.lapelotavasca.com/
http://www.aspepelota.com/portada/portada.php

There are some variations to it. It can be played without an extension, with a concave extension (similar to a claw). I don't know the names of the variations. I think pelota vasca is without an extension.

http://www.aspepelota.com/multimedia/imagenes/goni/AlbGoniNaf12.jpg

This is without an extension...you can see some padding in the fingers.

[Edited by kotaro - 8/25/2002 3:50:30 AM]

aka jai alai in the US, big hispanic support in miami area. went once, great fights in the crowd.....

used to have a clip in the miami vice opening credits