Week 10 Recap

While Turbo Bocce is destined to stand the test of time like the Mona Lisa, or the music of Milli Vanilli, the same cannot be said for this summer. We have reached the 10th week of a 10 week season. In a couple weeks the Fair will start, then football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (at least its nice to know that all the things coming up are awesome, I love this time of year!).

But before any of those other things happen something more important will happen, we will crown a Turbo Bocce champion, and we can’t do that until the season ends officially next week.

Before you read on, look at this article about our league: http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/in_liverpool_a_community_of_friends_who_enjoy_bocce_beer_and_bonding.html

Week 10 was a big week – as week 10’s usually are – what was unusual about this week were the karate people in attendance. You might remember back in May we had a fundraiser (the Turbo Bocce Spring Gala) that paid for the speaker we listen to music on and our lights. It also provided everyone in bocce who came with a night of free food and drinks. This was all thanks to our sponsors, one of which was Team Feidt, the best karate studio in town. In addition to paying for us all to eat and drink for free, in addition to paying for our music and our lights, they are also providing anybody in bocce who wants it with a free karate or fitness lesson. If you (or a friend, or family member) is interested, call this number: 315-622-5425 and tell them you are from Turbo Bocce. If you want more information, here is their website http://www.teamfeidt.com/ and here is their Facebook facebook.com/Teamfeidt. Their hours are Monday-Sunday 9am-9pm and they have two locations 8075 Oswego Road, Liverpool, NY 13090 and at the Great Northern Mall in the Macy’s wing.

May the perks of playing bocce never stop!

Onto the games . . . there were some big ones, including arguably the biggest game of the year.

Our regular season title has basically come down to a two team race. Either Rick & Robb or Los Moppines are going to win it. They both played their final games of the season in week 10 and they both went 3-0.

Los Moppines got together for the first time after their first and second place finish in the one-on-one tournament, and proved that going head to head for a championship did not hurt their team chemistry at all. They played team Hattricks who put up a good fight, but eventually did what just about everyone else has done this year, and lost to Los Moppines.

Rick & Robb played as well, against one of the best teams in the league, Balls On Your Ace. Some would call this a dangerous game because Balls On Your Ace is more than capable of beating anybody, but Rick & Robb took the challenge on and it paid off. Their three wins against Balls On Your Ace (and the strength of schedule boost it provided) propelled them from second place to first place. But not by much . . .

Since both Rick & Robb and Los Moppines are finished with all their games you might think the race for the regular season title is over. Its not! Currently Rick & Robb’s lead is just three hundredths of a percentage point. In our BCS calculations your winning percentage counts twice as much as your strength of schedule, but with such a small lead, small changes in strength of schedule can affect the standings. This means that the regular season championship could be decided during the make-up week, not by the first and second place teams, but by the teams they have played throughout the season. For example, if the teams Rick & Robb played during the season happen to lose a lot during the make-up week, it could affect their strength of schedule enough to drop them back down to second place.

So if you’ve played either Los Moppines or Rick & Robb this year, and you need to play a game or more during our make-up week, know that whether you win or lose might just determine who our regular season champ is! Exciting stuff!

For the poor teams who find themselves in the closest regular season battle Turbo Bocce has ever produced, all there is left to do is wait, and hope.

Another HUGE event happened in Week 10. A Buzz Saw! How many people know what a Buzz Saw is? We haven’t had one in almost two years, so I imagine many of you don’t know. Think of a Buzz Saw as the perfect game of bocce. It involves giving up zero points and scoring the most points possible. Since we play to 11, the most points you can score (while giving up zero) is 14, and the only way to get to 14 is by scoring exactly 10 points and then getting a 4 point round. Its incredibly difficult to do. This is only the seventh Buzz Saw ever accomplished (and only the 4th that did not involve Jim McCarthy on one side or the other). If you want to read about the last Buzz Saw (and get a short Buzz Saw history lesson) check this link out https://turbobocce.com/week-8-recap/.

This years Buzz Saw Winners.

Turbo Bocce tradition states that the Buzz Saw victors get free drinks and shots bought for them.

Buzz Saw winners from two years ago.

This was an especially impressive Buzz Saw because it took place in a game between two good teams with good records. In this case Balls Deep (who is incredibly hot right now and rocketing up the standings) beat Lover Boys 14-0 in the first game they played. They also ended up winning the series two games to one.

Elsewhere, 2 ½ Kittens played Mean Girls and won the series two games to one despite the Mean Girls outscoring them rather badly overall 37-23. While the games were quite competitive, the competitors themselves seemed rather relaxed.