Close But Not Close Enough

The final weekend saw Rod easily win Match 1. But then we had a long long wait for Match 2 and we just didn't bring our A game, our B game, or even our C game.

I still can't believe we lost to a team named Bocce Brunch. Ugh.

Anyhoo, we finished with a 7-3 season record and made it to the Final 4 for the third time.

By the way, Jim was the Hot Rod in Match 1.

Enjoy the movie. Cobra Kai will since there is footage of their championship winning roll at the end of it. Congratulations Kai. You are the champions and you still have the best bocce blog out there.

Welcome to the Terrordome

What the? How could we really have beaten the Coffee Flats Terrors six times in a row? Six times! Gone are the days where the Terrors saunter in blasting Public Enemy on their boombox. Six times. This streak has to end at some point but I hope to at least carry it into its second presidential administration.

So how did we do it?

Let's see --

Game 1
We were decent. But they were awesome. It was tied at 2 before they destroyed us.

SHR and Mitch
Beth and me
7-3 Terrors

Game 2
We cruised.

Erik and Jim
Dave and me
7-1 Rod

Game 3
We took a 4-0 lead in the first frame. The Terrors hit the back wall twice.
But then they came roaring back with a four-spot of their own to take a 5-4 lead.

In the final frame, we put it close to the pallino with our second roll. The Terrors expended the rest of their energy (and balls) trying to knock ours out to no avail.

And then Dave rolled the shot of the match - he knocked out the Terrors' closest ball to give us two points. I finished it off and Rod marched into the Final 8.

Erik and Jim
Dave and me

The Movie


Season Record: 6-2
Hot Rods: Erik, Jim, Dave, and me

Thank you Marc for sending me the scary photo featured above.

Team Rod Is Ready for the Playoffs

Every single season, we seemingly finish early and then have 4-6 weeks to sit around and wait for the playoffs.

This year was no different.

A number of weeks ago, If You Want My Bocce finished its season with a doubleheader against Schwetty Balls and The Mamalukes. We won both.

Match 1 vs. The Schwetty Balls
7-1
7-6
Rod

Match 2 vs. the Mamalukes
7-5
7-5
Rod

The Movie

Season Record: 5-2

Hot Rod: Beth in match 1, Dave in match 2.

Next up - the playoffs.

A Big Victory for Rod

Team Rod was on a losing streak when it suited up to take on vaunted rivals, The Coffee Flats Terrors last Monday night.

The Terrors entered the game with a stellar 3-0 record while Rod limped in mired in 2-2 mediocrity.

Game 1
SHR and Mitch
Jim and me

The Terrors let us know who was boss in Game 1. Despite solid rolls on our parts, the Terrors cruised to a 7-2 drubbing. Ezra and Marc could do no wrong.

Some of the Terrors started playing Ms. Pac Man, confident that victory would be theirs and their four game losing streak against Team Rod would finally be over.

Game 2
SHR and Mitch
Erik and Dani

SHR continued her stellar rolls but Sweet Touch was the star. He absolutely dominated. We fell behind 3-2 before turning it on and winning 7-3.

Game 3
SHR and Beth
Erik and Dani

The Terrors could not touch us. They rolled decently enough but all four of the Rods rolled splendidly.
7-1 Rod!

We beat the Terrors for the fifth straight time! For those keeping track, the last time Rod was terrorized by the bitter coffee taste of defeat to the Terrors was two long years ago.

Jamie wrote on the Terrors blog, "i think our losing streak to the Rodders has reached 5 consecutive matches including at least 2 in which we won the 1st game only to succumb in the end."

Actually, a little research shows that of the first four matches of the Rod winning streak, the Terrors had not won the first game ever. This match was the first time. Not that that is here or there. But Rod likes getting things right. You don't chart with 62 hit singles if you don't get a lot of things right, you know.

Hot Rod Award: SHR even though both of us agree that it should have gone to Sweet Touch.

The Movie:

By the way, I'm sorry that I didn't get any good footage of Dani's excellent rolls. For the most part, I was only taking movies of my teammates' second roll of each frame. Dani's amazing first rolls of each frame thus went undocumented but I'd like to point out that she is Rod's favorite to get things started right. Her stellar first rolls on this night set up Erik's later dominance.

Season Record: 3-2

The Sweet Meats Are Rod's Daddy

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They own us. We are now 0-6 against them. 0-6!

We took a 6-2 lead in Game 1 to end up losing 7-6. In Game 2, we fell behind 6-1 before coming back to win 7-6. Game 3 sucked.

Game 1
Sausage fest: Just like Rod likes it sometimes.
Mitch and me
Erik and Jim
7-6 Meats

Game 2
SHR and Dani
Beth and Jim
7-6
Rod

Game 3
Couples Skate:
Erik and Dani
SHR and me
7-2 Meats

Season Record: 2-2

The Movie

All Good Things Come to an End

After vanquishing two of our rivals in the first two games of this season, Team Rod was riding high against the fellas of Boccelism or Lism as they prefer to be called. We were not only riding a two game winning streak on this young season but a two game winning streak against the four-time champions of Boccelism.

It wasn't meant to be last Monday night though.

We just couldn't put anything together. We had some good rolls, we had some bad rolls. We had some good dance moves, we had some bad luck. Oh well, that's the way the gold record shatters sometimes.

For the record:
Game 1
Beth and me
Mitch and SHR

They took a 3-0 lead before we came roaring back to take a 4-3 lead. But then everything went bad.
7-4 Boccelism

Game 2
Jim and Erik
Mitch and Dani

They took a 5-2 lead but again we edged closer. We didn't take a lead though but we did get as close as 5-4. But then just like in the first game, things went sour at the end.
7-4 Boccelism

So far this season, we have beaten the two teams that we hadn't beaten yet (going 0-2 against both ODB and Watch Your Balls in previous seasons) and lost to the team that we had beaten twice in a row.

I'm not sure what this trend means for a team we haven't beaten in five previous tries. But The Sweet Meats have a week to figure it out. Rod prefers it medium raw if you catch my drift.

Season Record: 2-1

The Movie: Complete With Sound Effects!

Rod: Avenger of All Losses

After beating ODB last week for the first time, we faced off against another team that we were 0-2 against, Watch Your Balls.

In fact, not only were we 0-2 against them but we hadn't even won a game against them. But those two losses came at odd times in Rod's checkered past. One was immediately following the haze of a heartbreaking Sweet Meats defeat last spring as part of a doubleheader. And the other was last fall. That loss dropped us to 0-3 and much drama immediately followed.

But Rod is in a different place mentally these days and likens last fall to the dissolution of his marriage to Rachel Hunter. And now look how happy Rod is!

But when we went down by 4 after the first frame, things looked a bit dicey. But Rod ain't afraid of no balls. Mitch and I began the comeback by notching our first point. Dani and Beth added a point and then Mitch and I added two more. All of a sudden it was tied at 4.

Down 5-4, Mitch and I added two more. Dani put the hammer down in the next frame and we took a satisfying 7-5 victory.

Game 2
Mitch and SHR put up three quick points before Watch Your Balls answered with three of their own. Then Rod was down 4-3 before we even knew what hit us. No matter.

Jim and Erik tied it at 4. And then Mitch went to town. His first roll of the frame was so brilliant that it forced Watch Your Balls to expend all of their pent up energy into four missed opportunities. SHR and Mitch finished them off and that was all she wrote.

Game 1
Dani and Beth
Mitch and me
7-5 Rod

Game 2
Jim and Erik
Mitch and SHR
7-4 Rod

On the night, Mitch's side won by a score of 11-1. Nice! Yet somehow I scored the Hot Rod belt. I'll take the charity knowing that the real winner on this night was Rod.

Season Record: 2-0

The Movie

If You Want My Bocce: Back in Business

This is a season of redemption. This is a season to welcome back old friends. This is an era of good feelings.

This is If You Want My Bocce 2008!

For our first game of the season we had a tough assignment - the Old Dirty Barristers, the reigning champions.

This was the third time we had started a season against them. We lost to them to begin Fall '07 as well as Summer '06. Would Spring '08 be any different?

At first, it didn't seem likely.

We quickly were down 5-0.

But then Team Rod started to come back.

Jim and Dani started it with two points with some nice rolling.

Down 5-2, Sweet Touch started things off well with an excellent first roll. ODB took four rolls to get closer. But closer they got. Right on the damn pallino.

No matter, Beth knows that Rod likes it nice and hard so that is what she did. With a precision shot, she knocked out ODB's ball to give us two points. It was an unbelievable shot.

Jim and Dani gave us another point to tie it and we were on our way to victory!

Down 6-5, Dani pinned them deep with an amazing roll. Tied at 6 in the same frame, Jim put them away with a lovely shot deep.

In Game 2, we fell behind 4-2. No matter, SHR, Dave, Mitch, and I had a plan for victory. We chipped away. Soon it was 4-3. Then it was 5-4 us. Then 6-4.

Mitch and I had the opportunity to put the hammer down. Unfortunately, we didn't quite do that. No matter. ODB helped us out. With a chance to win, not only could they not add to their point with any of their remaining balls, they knocked theirs out with their last ball to give Rod the win. As we all know - some guys have all the luck.

Team Rod!

Hooray for everybody! I can't wait for our next game - maybe Floyd will actually turn on the heat so our Rod hands aren't so darn cold.

Check out the video. Not my best work considering I missed Beth's amazing Game 1 shot as well as the last shot of the match. Oh well. There's some Ms. Pac Man footage instead.



And while you're at it, this Rod approved jam is dedicated to our returning members, Beth and Jim. Welcome back.

Rod: Vision of the Future

Mitch e-mailed me this artwork right after the completion of the fall season.

He wrote, "This photo was on the computer I'm using at work. Strange coincidence or vision of the future?"
Jeremy of the Sweet Meats also left this photo as a link in the comments section of the last post.

Should we buy some prints?

Dave also sent this Faces video around recently to his fellow Team Rodsters.

The new season is almost upon us. Prepare to be amazed fellow teams at Floyd! We're back and hungry to avenge our tumultuous last season. Sing it Rod!