Spring 2007 Bocce Finals

April 30, 2007 by karen

Team Kane Street had a super busy weekend between two days of the spring bocce tournament at Floyd in Brooklyn and a baptism for Kota out on Long Island. Saturday afternoon we kicked off the first day of the tournament.

First game:
Watch Your Balls!! v. the Mamalukes.
We took them down, though I honestly remember very little from this game. Probably because I had a major screw up in the first game of the match that ended with their team getting three extra points instead of us, and I zoned out until the third match. Luckily WYB!! took back the next two matches and we moved on in the tournament. With an hour + to spare between games, the team grabbed some power food from the Chip Shop and Waterfalls and welcomed back WYB!! alum, Micah Craig, to the better coast (do you hear that Manlio?).

Second game:
Watch Your Balls!! v. The Sweet Meats.
We had only beat them once before when they were short a few members, but this time WYB!! was ready to fight. We went to three games and in the end were victorious, but it was a tough match and a good-spirited one as well. In a nod to the World Cup, after our battle Tom of the Sweet Meats handed over his Sweet Meats cap to Alex so that he could wear it proudly for the Monday night teams. He also declared that he does not have lice, which is good news for Alex.

Still rolling from our victory, and Micah’s return to New York, WYB!! decided an impromptu bbq back at Team Kane Street headquarters was in order. Daya and I went on a quick trip to Key Food to gather the necessities (5 lbs of various meats) and then the team moseyed back to Park Slope. We whipped up some beef burgers, pork burgers, veggies burgers, a killer salad, homemade salsa, and strawberries before returning to Cobble Hill for Micah’s welcome back party at Boat. Way exhausted from the day’s events, I lasted about half a beer before calling it a night.

Sunday morning was my nephew Kota Ethan Bonna’s baptism out on Long Island. Vicky met up with us in Park Slope at 8 a.m. and we drove out to Stewart Manor to a church where my parents were married in the 60’s. Highlights from the baptism included:

- Watching my mother spread the peace all the way across the church. She really likes peace.
- When the pastor carried Kota down the aisle and everyone cheered.
- Kota’s awesome kimono robe.
- Chieko’s parents coming to town from Japan.

The Bonnas and Chieko’s parents.

The baptism was followed by a delicious lunch in East Norwich. The buffet included such delights as sushi, Belgian waffles, ice cream and an omelet bar. I am such a sucker for the brunch buffet.

Around 12:30, still at the brunch, Alex and I started discussing our exit strategy because our next bocce game started at 1:30 and we were about 45 minutes away from Brooklyn. While my immediate family understands the demands of playing in the bocce league, the extended family doesn’t really appreciate the value of the game. I think my aunt said “What are you, 70?” when I told her about the tournament.

By 1 p.m. we were hightailing it back to Brooklyn and came running into Floyd in our Sunday best with just enough time to change and hit the court by the first match!

Third game:
Watch Your Balls!! v. Coffee Flats Terrors.
We’ve never beat this team and they almost always knock us out of the tournament every season. They have so many players, I don’t know how they have time to play everyone, and yet everyone is awesomely good. The game started off rough, with CFT taking the lead, but we came back in the next two games with a 7-0 and 7-5. What?! Did that just happen?

Part of doing well in the tournament is that you need to pace your drinking. When one spends an entire day in a bar, the likelihood of getting drunk is quite high. You do your best to find that sweet spot of not drinking too little that you’re nervous about your game and not so much that are too “loose”. As we waited for our next matchup, we tried to maintain and not over do it. One might say we succeeded with mixed results.

Boccelism Brian naps before the finals.

This is what measuring tends to look like–lots people crowded around to see which ball is closer. Exciting, I know.

Fourth game:
Watch Your Balls!! v. Boccelism.
Bum, bum, bum! We entered the final four matched up against Boccelism, perhaps one of the most despised teams in all of Bocce history (or at least at Floyd). They are target of much graffiti discussion in the bathrooms of Floyd and I hear they are virgins, though one has a baby, so I don’t know how much weight those bathroom facts carry. Additionally, they’re one of the more skilled bocce teams in the league which is probably the reason for all the graffiti and the “Stop Boccelism” t-shirts that arrived on the last day of the finals. They’ve won the tournament three seasons in a row. As WYB!! has been playing in the league for many years now and still has yet to win a championship, we are the Red Sox (pre-2004) to their Yankees (pre-2001).

A Boccelism member and Stop Boccelism t-shirts.

So as we started this game we knew everyone wanted a new champ as it seemed every Floyd team was rooting us on in the bar. We kicked off the match really well and won the first game! Go Balls! Go Balls!

As we entered our second match, Daya, one of our more consistent players, had to leave us for a work event, and we needed to adjust our team partnering. We went down in the second game, and sadly couldn’t bring back the power from the first game to the third game. The loss was a bummer and we felt like we let the whole league down. What happened to Stop Boccelism?!

We soaked our sadness up in chips and pizzas and listened to the final game of the Po Town Pallinos v. Boccelism. It wasn’t a great match up considering the Po Town team had spilled a full beer on the court early in the final game - when that happens during the finals you know you should call it a day. Boccelism won, making it four straight championship wins.

Floyd had a great post-season ceremony and handed out a bunch of awards to the teams including:

Best Name: New Kids on the Bocc
Best Blog: Cobra Kai (not to be a hater, but it looks like it hasn’t been updated since the fall….ok, I am being a hater.)
The Keep Truckin’ Award: Nororious BRF
The Balls of Integrity: The Coffee Flat Terrors
The Snake in the Grass Award: Boccelism (e Coli tainted peanut butter was the award).

The Balls of Integrity worn by a Veni Vidi Bocce member. This is the ONLY award we have ever won and it was a made up award by another team.

I think we should have gotten the perfect attendance award (we even showed up on nights we didn’t have games!!). We’ll be taking the summer season off, but we’ll continue our training and be back next fall to take down Boccelism! Thanks for a great season, Alex, Kevin, Sara, Matt and Daya!

Tags: alex, bocce, brooklyn, chieko b., daya w., freya r., jeff b., karen, kevin k., kota b., matt s., micah c., sara k., the b's, vicky

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