In week one you’re just getting your barrings, so even though the games count you might not put too much weight on the results. By week two you better have your shit together, in other words, these games matter, in other words, its on like some video game that was always on during my childhood. Tecmo Bowl? No. Pac Man? Closer . . .
We’ve now had three days of bocce (including the preseason) and the weather has been perfect for all three. However, if I was going to ignore the fact that “more perfect” is a meaningless phrase, I would say that this Tuesday’s weather was more perfect than the rest. The bocce was pretty darn good too. There were a lot of interesting match ups, and the grass was a little long due to the memorial day holiday throwing off the mowing schedule, but that only seemed to make the bocce better. To put some scientific facts behind it. The high for aces last week was 3, and the high for aces this week was 5. So either the bocce was 40% better, or Colin just had a great night (I’ll get to that later). My guess is both are true.
Great weather + slightly longer grass = epic bocce.
How about we talk about the game that Colin had? It was a pretty epic game as perennial front-runners Droppinn Balls and Mark & Robb had a showdown. Colin Donahoe of Droppin Balls had 18 points and 5 aces, and his team still lost 2 games to 1. The one game they won requited Colin to throw 4 aces, which Mark and Robb matched with 4 aces of their own (2 a piece). The first game of this series also deserves mention since it went into overtime. Mark & Robb ended up winning 15-10 in what was the longest game of the year so far. Those overtime points are all that separated the two teams on this day, and if you watch the video below you’ll see how close all the shots were, and how even the bocces that missed were great shots.
So many of us have been playing in this league for so long that its hard for newcomers to show up and win right away. Most need at least a few weeks to adjust before they can compete with veterans. Caity Ferrari is one that has not needed any time at all to compete. In this game she had 16 points, 7 bocces, and 2 aces, and for the year she is in the top 5 (out of 100) in both points and bocces. Her partner Jacque (also a rookie) also had a great game with 10 points, 6 bocces and 3 aces. But as I mentioned, its hard for newcomers to beat veterans, and Blonde Bocce Bitches are Turbo Bocce veterans with plenty of medals (especially medals for most bocces) to show for it. Kim Pomeroy had 10 bocces in this game and Sherri Walaks added 12 points, and Blonde Bocce Bitches won 2 games to 1 despite being shot out 11-0 in the first game.
After a first game shut out, Sherri scores 12 in two games to help get the win.
Back to veteran teams. We had a rematch of last year’s final 4 when last year’s champions Black Jesus took on Breakfast of Champions. The result was the same with Black Jesus emerging victorious, though the games were more lopsided than during the playoffs. Black Jesus overcame an early 4 point deficit to win the first game rather comfortably. In the second game Black Jesus overcame a huge 8-2 deficit, to tie the game at 10-10, finally winning 12-10 in overtime on a Turbo Round win from John Bauman. The third game was, frankly, a blue print on how to win a bocce. Jim Whipple threw the first shot with 6 inches of the pallino every time, and the few times we beat that shot John Bauman was there to bocce us away. Black Jesus won that game 11-0 and this video I shot while marking the pallino will show you why they are so tough to play.
Knickerboocces had a great week of bocce, beating one of last year’s best teams Ballz Deeper 2-1 despite the fact that Ballz Deeper was making shots like this!
Twinning took on last year’s runner ups Blue Ballz, and pulled the upset, winning 2 games to 1 behind a huge 21 point performance from Siobhan Christou (she scored 10 in a single game!). Twinnig has a way of making their opponents very sad after beating them, which is why I stole this pic they took without permission. Sorry Jess, even more sorry Blue Ballz.
Kiss My Ace beat Boccelism 2 games to 1 in a series where 31 bocces were recorded! Angelo had 9, Jay and Jeff had 8 each, and Mike had 6. It will be interesting to see if there is a game that generates more bocces than this over the course of the year.
The bounty game saw Some Innuendo take on Boccelicious, and Some Innuendo came to play, winning the series and the bounty prize in two quick games with scores of 11-6 and 11-2. Congratulations Some Innuendo, don’t forget to pick your prize up, you earned it!
Onto Individual Accomplishments:
20 Point Club (season high going into the week was 20)
Siobhan Christou – Twinning – 21
Rick Hefernan – Ralph Bocce-O – 21
Jeff Williams – Jeff & Tina – 20
Greg Griffo – Los Moppines – 20
Scott Mead – Big LaBocce – 20
Honorable Mention to Kate Mead, Badger Ballon, Eric Szantai, Jim Whipple, Mark Streiff, and Anson Zepetello all of which scored 19 points while leading their teams to victories.
5 Bocce Club (season high going into the week was 8)
Kim Pomeroy – Blonde Bocce Bitches – 10
Angelo Isgro – Kiss My Ace – 9
Jayson Gray – Kiss My Ace – 8
Jeff Weiner – Boccelism – 8
Rob Calvani – Rob & Jon – 8
Caity Ferrari – Buff Ave. Babes – 7
Bobby Lupi – Bocce Against the Machine – 7
Mike Weiss – Boccelism – 6
Jacque Stapleton – Buff Ave. Babes – 6
Greg Griffo – Los Moppines – 6
Jim Lowrey – DaVinci – 5
Multiple Ace Club (season high going into the week was 3)
Colin Donahoe – Droppin Balls- 5
Jeff McGann – Bocce Against the Machine – 4
Tina Paetow – Jeff & Tina – 3
Mark Streiff – Mark & Robb – 3
Jacque Stapleton – Buff Ave. Babes – 3
Caity Ferrari – Buff Ave. Babes – 2
Paul Colabufo – Breakfast of Champions – 2
Matt Foster – Ralph Bocce-O – 2
Siobhan Christou – Twinning – 2
Dave Janket – Ballz Deeper – 2
Greg Griffo – Los Moppines – 2 (great day for Greg, he’s been in every category so far!)
Kate Mead – G & T’s – 2
Kevin Currerri – Salty Bocce Balls – 2
Anson Zeppetello – Amerika’z Most Wanted – 2
Angela Morosini – Double A’s – 2
Allison Bodine – Double A’s 2
Talk about an ace fest; two of the above Aces came at the same time!
Now that its week 2 we can get into some season leaders.
Top teams in BCS (we rank the teams based on our BCS formula which is wins (x2) plus opponent winning percentage).
Mark & Robb – 2.111
Amerika’z Most Wanted – 2.111
Ralph Bocce-O – 2.111
Black Jesus – 2.083
Knickerbocces, Tim & Morgan, Los Moppines, Rum Runners, and Baci Di – 2.000
Points Leaders
Greg Griffo – Los Moppines – 39
Scott Mead – Big LaBocce – 38
Andy Ingalls – Amerika’z Most Wanted – 36
Rick Heffernan – Ralph Bocce-O – 36
Caity Ferrari, Jim Whipple, John Bauman, Mark Streif,and Siobhan Christou – 35
Bocce Leaders
Angelo Isgro – Kiss My Ace – 17
Jeff Weiner – Boccelism – 15
Kim Pomeroy – Blonde Bocce Bitches – 14
Caity Ferrari – Buff Ave. Babes – 13
Jayson Gray and Sherri Walakis – 11
Ace Leaders
Colin Donahoe – Droppin Balls – 6
Greg Griffo – Los Moppines – 5
Jeff McGann – Bocce Against the Machine – 5
7 tied with 4
Turbo Round Wins
Scott Mead – Big LaBocce – 3
5 tied with 2
If you don’t see your stats, you can find stats for every team and person in the league HERE.
This year we are going to try to interview a different player each week to give you a perspective on playing bocce that’s not mine. I figure that can only be a good thing. This week its the reigning playoff MVP John Bauman. Enjoy.
Turbo Bocce: How long have you been in the Turbo Bocce league?
John: 7-9 years
Turbo Bocce: Waffles or Pancakes?
John: Waffles
Turbo Bocce: On a scale of 1 to 10 how intolerable do you find baby pictures on Facebook?
John: Facebook is a government tool to manipulate the masses a.k.a. “sheep”
Turbo Bocce: How old were you when you realized Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny probably never actually knew one another in real life?
John: Once I was old enough to realize both are tools to indoctrinate and trick people into organized religion.
Turbo Bocce: Which celebrity would you want to beat at bocce?
John: Jim Whipple
There you have it folks, now you know the story. I agree with John’s stance of waffles, but I do not agree with his stance on always beating me at bocce.
One bit of advice to hold you over until bocce comes around again next week; leaves of three let it be (unless you’re in Canada in which case you are probably just looking at a flag), leaves of seven or whatever a pot leaf has, go ahead and smoke it.
If it has three leaves its unlikely to be a character from Batman.
As always, there are more pictures to be found on our Facebook page HERE.
