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TEAM BUD LIGHT CRUISES IN ROUND TWO OF BOCCE WORLD SERIES
07/17/10
FOOD-FUN-GREAT BOCCE AT THE TOCCOLANA CLUB-NOW THROUGH SUNDAY
FRED MILLER
 When in Rome do as the Romans do! Visit the World Series of Bocce. Who needs Facebook to keep up with friends? If you head to the always festive Toccolana Club in East Rome you'll get an up close and personal feel for what I'm talking about.
After all, this is the 37th Annual World Series of Bocce, and if something like this lasts this long, it must be good.
 Good indeed. The Toccolana Club and our good friends at Tri-Valley Beverage are proud to host this great sporting event each and every summer in the Copper City. You know what? You know it's Bocce time when the temperature hits 90 and the humidity is high.
But you know what? Doesn't matter, because you get caught up in the excitement going on in the indoor and outdoor courts at the "Tooky" club all weekend long.
You also forget how hot it is outside because you are too busy catching up with old friends. As small as Rome is, it's easy to get caught up in your everyday life and you tend to miss running into the people who make this area such a great place to live.
Heck, I bumped into ten people I haven't seen, and miss, in about two hours.
If you don't head to the World Series to get caught up in the action on the courts, then head there for the great Italian food, and most of all, to catch up with friends. Who needs Facebook?
 This year's event is the 25th sponsored by Tri-Valley Beverage, local distributors of Bud and Bud Light.
By the way, the Bud Light Lime, on tap, tasted great on a hot day. Be sure to thank Dave Smith, Bill Ruzanski and all the fine folks at Tri-Valley for supporting this event, each and every year.
Pat Passalaqua, Mike Ferlo and the countless, hardworking, volunteers make this event one of the must attend events of the summer in the Mohawk Valley.
The field competing for the title of 2010 World Champion is made up of 82 teams in the Open Division and 42 Women's Division teams. Prize money of $4000.00 will be handed out when action ends on Sunday night.
(Team BudLight: Left to Right: Joe Mortis, Frank Costello, Kevin Hinderling, David Smith)
MHTS visited the World Series on Saturday morning to catch Team Bud Light try to stay alive and stave off elimination in the double-elimination event. The Bud-Light boys fell in their tourney opener on Friday nignt, 16-12, to a team from Amsterdam.
 It was time to bounce back or head to the beer tent for the brew crew. This year's Bud Light roster is a little different than previous years with the addition of Kevin Hinderling and how about bringing in a ringer like former RFA football great Joe Mortis?
Man could Joe run that Black Knight offense. Those were the days! Good to see Joe. Brought back a lot of great RFA grid iron memories. The two constants on the four man roster are Smitty and Frank Costello.
Hey, did you know that throwing balls toward a target is the oldest game known to mankind? As early as 5000 B.C. the Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks. Graphic representations of figures tossing a ball or polished stone have been recorded as early as 5200 B.C..
While bocce today looks quite different from its early predecessors, the unbroken thread of bocce’s lineage is the consistently common objective of trying to come as close to a fixed target as possible.
From this early objective, the basic rules of bocce were born. From Egypt the game made its way to Greece around 800 B.C..
The Romans learned the game from the Greeks, then introduced it throughout the empire. The Roman influence in bocce is preserved in the game’s name; bocce derives from the Vulgate Latin bottia, meaning boss.
I digress, today's opponent for team Bud Light was team Framingham #2 for Framingham Mass., an affable foursome of brothers and friends who seemed, to me, to be here to have a good time as well as play bocce.
The roster included, John and Bill Villa; John tells me there are plenty more Villas where these two came from. I forgot to ask if they have a Bob Villa, oh well, next time.
Rounding out the team were Carl D'Aveta and Artie Cannon. The friendly foursome was glad to point out that the teams from Framingham take their bocce seriously. In fact, they were proud to point out that a team from Framingham won the World Series championship in 1984.
So it was Yanks, Redsox all over again, this time on a bocce court.
(Team Framingham #2: Left to Right: Bill Villa, Carl D'Aveta, Artie Cannon, John Villa.)
Team Bud Light 16 Framingham (# 2) 4
When the action started, on court 3, it didn't take long to see that team Bud Light was on top of its game. Dave Smith, Bud Light's lead off man was on fire and on point, rolling his ball close to the pallino on several occasions. A good lead off man can put a lot of pressure on an opponent.
Team Bud Light jumped out to a big early lead, grabbing 3 quick points. After Smitty led off, all four Framingham team members failed to top his well placed lead off ball.
After Framingham fired and missed, Joe Mortis and Frank Costello rolled in for two more points to put the Romans up 3-0.
It was more of the same in frame number two, as Bud Light picked up two more quick points. At 5-0 the boys from Mass. were in trouble.
Looking to get back in it before the match was over, Framingham picked up a point to make it 5-1.
The next trip up court was the one that decided the direction this one would go in.
With possesion of the pallino, Framingham failed to take advantage and team Bud Light pounced to score four big points.
Kevin Hinderling took a gamble, that paid off, when he wacked the pallino to the end of the court and opened things up for his teammates to roll in with plenty of room to spare.
Hinderling's shot helped his team put up a four spot. At 9-1 it was getting late early for Framingham.
10-4 was a close as Framingham got down the strecth and team Bud Light wrapped it up as they led 13-4 and with three points ended the match 16-4. Frank Costello had the honors to wrap this one up as he rolled in for the 16th and final point.
(Teams measure to see who gets the point in early aciton.)
The win improved Team Bud Light's record to 2-1 and we have recieved an update that tells us the boys won again, 16-0, to stay alive and improve to 3-1. Let's make that 4-1 Team Bud Light won again this afternoon 16-2 to march on. The beat goes on just got word that Team Bud Light won again 16-9 to improve to 5-1.
MHTS Saturday night update: Team Bud Light was eliminated after a great Saturday run falling 16-9 in their last match. Their 2010 World Series record was 5-2.
The loss eliminates Framingham #2 from the tourney, but you can be sure this fun foursome will be seen sharing a laugh and a story at the Bud Tent.
Be sure to stop by the tourney before it ends and thanks for the invitation.
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