We Just Can't Beat the Sweet Meats When I'm Playing

After going 0-6 against the Sweet Meats with me in attendance, Rod was riding high on a 1 game winning streak against the Meats without me in attendance.

I was there last Monday night. The result? An obvious one. I was terrible - perhaps my worst game ever.

The Movie: Watch it if for nothing else - SHR's and Jim's great shots when we were down to our last ball.



Game 1
7-4 Meats

Game 2
7-4 Meats

Season Record: 1-2

holy shit, we finally beat the sweet meats!

Well, I think the title says it all. As of 7:30PM yesterday, we had played six matches against the Sweet Meats (or their summer incarnation, Jimbo's Sweet Meat All-Stars) and had lost every single time. Our losses were often heart wrenching and jaw-droppingly spectacular. We've come back from 0-6 deficits only to lose 6-7. We've blown 6-0 leads in every sort of way imaginable. The Sweet Meats were our daddys and to be honest, if we had to pick anyone to be our daddys, it would be them because they have good sportsmanship and good merch and are fun to play against.

As has been the case for many of our matches this underachieving season, we were not at full strength. Hot Legs was in Maryland (hence the lo-fi post), Handbags and Gladrags was eating french fries on the beach and Rodberto was...I have no idea where he was. Downtown Train was a maybe so when he showed up, I think our our spirits were lifted.

After game one, the score looked like this!
The Balltrap and Downtown Train started on the Ms. Pac-Man side, while Sweet Touch and I took the other. ST and I had some key momentum shifts with our 3rd and 4th rolls, and our side wound up scoring all 7 points. The SMs were unable to capitalize in situations where we were done rolling and they had multiple balls left. However, it was foolish to get overly excited because we had beaten the SMs in game ones before only to shrivel up and die in the next two games.

For game two, Love Touch swapped in for Sweet Touch but everything else stayed the same. Jim and Mitch immediately turned things around with a two spot to start off the game. I can't really remember much of that happened next, but I think the ladies of Rod scored a point and then J & M scored some more. At some point, LoR gave up a point to the Meats. Heading into what would be the final frame, the score was 6 points Rod, 1 point Meats. The Meats controlled the pally and got close with their first roll. But then Jim had the roll heard around Floyd. With our first roll, he pinned both balls against the pallino, but the Meats' red ball had an extra rotation in it and rolled away to create this scenario:

The Meats were unable to get closer or knock our ball away with any of their remaining three shots. So that meant:
A little before 8:30, we were finally winners! We ended our 2-4 regular season on a high note even Mimi would be proud of. We did it guys!

Sweet Touch texts Hot Legs with the good news.

Game 1
Jim and Mitch
Sujan and Erik
7-5 Rod

Game 2
Jim and Mitch
Sujan and Beth
7-1 Rod

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

We Just Can't Beat the Sweet Meats, Part V

The less said the better. Game 1, we had a 6-0 lead and blew it.

Game 2, we sucked.

Game 1
Dani and Mitch
Erik and SHR
7-6 Meats

Game 2
Dani and Beth
Erik and me
7-3 Meats

The Hot Rod belt remains homeless two games into the season.

I've always liked the Sweet Meats but now that they've added some Phillies phans to the mix, I'm not as into this team. Yes, their theme song is still a reworked version of Meet the Mets but that might not be enough for me.

Not only do I have to put up with the Mets blowing their lead a little more each day to the Phillies but now I also have to put up with Phillies braggards badmouthing David Wright right behind me as I'm rolling?

All I have to say in the David Wright for MVP debate is this: David Wright might not be the best player in the league. But he never ever has ruined a frame of bocce by kicking the balls away with three balls left to play in the manner that the Jimmy Rollins touting Phillies fan did during this match. No, that would be more of a Jose Reyes move.

The only solace I can take in this loss is that we went from being absolutely terrible in the first match (except for Mitch) to an overall level of mediocre play in this one.

Season Record: 0-2

A movie of Dani's first roll as Rod.

We Just Can't Beat the Sweet Meats, Part IV

Match 1: Round of 8
If You Want My Bocce vs. Boccismo

Game 1
SHR and Jim
Beth and me

We got off to a strong start by dominating to the tune of 7-2. We fell behind by an early score of 2-0 but the tide turned in frame 3 when SHR and Jim put up a four-spot with four great rolls. In particular, SHR's 2nd roll was the one that pushed us from 1 point to 3.

Game 2
Sarah and Dave
Mike and Mitch

We took a quick 3-0 lead. And in proud Rod fashion, we had some good 'ol defensive rolling in the fourth frame. Leading 3-1, Boccismo was on the verge of a game changing 3-spot. But Sarah knocked the pallino back a little and they only scored one point. We still had a 3-2 lead.

Boccismo tied the score at 3 before Dave and Sarah added two more and the M & M Boys added one. But then Boccismo caught fire and took a 6-3 lead. But we weren't fazed. Dave and Sarah put up a point to get us to within 2. And then Mike and Mitch finished it off with a beautiful 3 spot.

Final 4 action!

Uh-oh.

Not against the Sweet Meats again! That squad has Rod's number.

Game 1
SHR and Jim
Mike and me

We fell behind 6-0 in ugly fashion. Down 1-0, Mike and I had 4 chances to get a ball closer to the pallino and missed all four. The Sweet Meats capitalized and put up three. Then SHR and Jim gave up two more.

But the game wasn't over just yet.

Mike and I put up a four spot powered by Mike's great first roll.

Down 6-4, Team Rod felt the comeback coming on.

On SHR's 2nd roll, she placed the ball right on the pallino. Woo hoo! On the Sweet Meats second attempt to break it up and the last roll of the frame, they gently nudged the pallino. It was measuring time. After much deliberation, it was deemed that the Meats were closer by mere millimeters. We had one last ball left. It was a very very tough shot and Jim couldn't quite put it in there.
7-4 Meats

Game 2
Beth and Mitch
Sarah and me

No matter because we were pumped for Game 2.

We took a quick 4-0 lead powered by a clutch roll by Beth in the first frame and a good roll by me in the second. In fact, my roll in the second frame was millimeters short of giving us three points rather than just two. This would come back to haunt us.

In the next frame, we went for the kill. On our last roll, Mitch put up two points for us. Unfortunately, they had two left and used them well. They scored two and halved our lead.

In the next frame, Sarah's great last roll was wasted when they had an even better roll and scored another point.

No big deal. Mitch and Beth put up two more on Mitch's clutch last roll.

With a 6-3 lead, I was excited. Surely, we'd put them away and we'd be on to Game 3.

But it wasn't to be.

All four of us shit the bed. No gold records for this year's Rod squad.

In the first frame of our undoing, Sarah started it off well enough. But the Sweet Meats put one of their balls right on the pallino. With my first roll, I tried to knock it to no avail and hit the back wall. Then Sarah didn't do much better. I knew I needed to protect us but my 2nd roll was way too short and not even close. The Meats scored an easy two points. I felt lucky that it wasn't more and that we still had a 6-5 lead.

The second frame of our undoing was awful. The Meats put the pallino in the back. Mitch and Beth spent all four balls not getting close. Mitch rolled the last ball of Rod Summer Season '07 and made the same mistake I made in my last roll of the season - he failed to protect us by putting one of our balls fairly close. They closed us out with the next roll and it was already time to start planning for the fall.

Game 2
7-6 Meats

I'd by lying if I said that I was rooting for the Terrors against the Sweet Meats. I'm competitive and I liked the fact that all of us from that original championship team still had only one trophy. Plus, the Sweet Meats have never won so I wanted to root for them as well.

But like many a Floyd final match, one team simply dominated. The dominant rolls that we saw against us were nowhere to be found against the Terrors. But that's the way it goes. Congratulations to the Coffee Flats Terrors - two time champions.

They might have had an easier road of it than it looked when the seedings were announced - no match against the 5-1 Bourbon Balls, a forfeit, and a Brian-less Boccelism. But that doesn't matter. They came to play and played well. And the way that some of them were rolling in the final three matches, it wouldn't have mattered who they played.

The league has had only two champions over the last 6 seasons. They are clearly the teams to beat. Next season should be interesting.

Not to mention, there are going to be some major changes in Rod Land. But more on that later.

6 important rolls of the day:

Check the Terrors' blog for more.

Summer Season
Final record: 6-3
Regular season: 4-2
Playoffs: 2-1

We Just Can't Beat the Sweet Meats!

It is really kind of sad, ain't it? The two other times that we've played, we destroyed them in the first game only to fall meekly in the next two games.

Before the game, Cap'n Jim (oh yeah apparently the summer team is called the Jimbo's Sweet Meat All-Stars or something) told me that despite our two squads being friendly that they were going to decimate us.

I wasn't afraid though but I suppose I should have been.

Game 1
Mike and Jim
Dave and Sarah

Things didn't start well as we quickly found ourselves in a 3-0 deficit. But then Dave and Sarah quickly tied it and we were on our way. That is until the Meats answered that with a three spot on Mike and Jim to take a 6-3 lead.

However, we weren't done. No way. Dave and Sarah notched another point and we were only down by 2.

Then things got interesting. Jim started the frame with an exquisite first roll. The Sweet Meats spent the next four balls trying to knock Jim's ball out of the way. They did not succeed but did set up a nice wall around the pallino where it resided on the right side.

Victory was within our reach! We had three balls left to get two more points but it was a tricky shot. Mike and then Jim both tried to sneak it in on the left side but couldn't quite do it.

With one shot left, I was hopeful that Mike could get us another point to set Dave and Sarah up to win it. The score would have been 6-5 at the very worst if Mike was not successful.

However, Mike (goaded by the Coffee Flats Terrors in attendance) went for the kill. It was an easy shot he kept saying afterwards. I was blissfully ignorant at the other end of the court about the debate going on before Mike's roll. So when his roll came barreling down the court and smashed into the wall of red, I was caught unawares.

Unfortunately for Rod, a one point green advantage turned into this.

Game 1
7-4 Sweet Meats

Game 2
SHR and Beth
Sarah and me

But we didn't let it faze us. We took Jimbo and his squad out quickly by a score of 7-2. All of the women rolled well and they carried me because I was pretty mediocre. SHR had one of the best rolls I've seen in a long time early in the game that set up Rod taking a 5-0 lead.

Game 3
Same as Game 2
It was back and forth at first. 2-0 Meats, Tied, 3-2 Meats, 4-3 Us

But the tide turned in the frame where we took the lead. My good rolls from the beginning of the game had completely deserted me at this point. Despite an excellent roll by Sarah to knock the pallino back to set us up for a killer round, I hit the back wall and we only got two points. We should have had three.

Somewhere during this time, many of the Coffee Flats Terrors who were supposedly rooting for us early in the match accepted bribes from the Sweet Meats to root for them instead of us. Oh well, anything for a quarter I suppose. We now know how cheaply some of the Terrors' loyalty can be bought.

Whether it was my bad rolls, Rod having an off night, or the quarters being bandied about, we completely fell apart - all four of us.

The Sweet Meats scored three points in the next frame and then finished us off in the next frame by only throwing one ball. The funniest part of this was that Tom Sweet Meat had no idea that the game was over and thought that we had become so disheartened that we had simply quit. I think he thought that we had one more ball left or something? Anyway, it was yet another loss to the Sweet Meats but we'll get them back in the playoffs! Maybe.

Game 3
7-4 Sweet Meats

Summer Record: 2-2

The Year of Rod Took a Slight Detour and Will Officially Commence in June

In the brief lull of another season ended too early, I present to you some scenes of what proved to be an insurmountable blow to our collective egos - the doubleheader defeat of Team Rod in our last regular season matches before the playoffs.

We may have lost but this scoreboard still makes me laugh.
Someone wants to get their twenty dollars worth. Either that or they were very angry.
Even though we ended up succumbing to the onslaught of Watch Your Balls in the second game of the sweep, I really like this exciting clip as they tried to put us away. They didn't on this shot but it only delayed the inevitable.

Summer season is right around the corner. Get in the mood with a singalong.

It Takes Two

Well Rodders, I'm glad I haven't had the chance to post write up for our regular season-ending doubleheader until now. Instead of a long-winded discourse of shoulda, coulda, wouldas, I'm saying, ON TO THE PLAYOFFS!

However, for those keeping score at home here's the ten second recap. We took game one against the Sweet Meats before they came back and tenderized us in games two and three as they did in last season's playoffs. In match two, we went down in two games to Watch Your Balls. In both matches, we put ourselves behind the pallino big time, falling behind 0-6 before mounting furious comebacks that just felt short.

Love,
YL the YT

It All Started So Well

What happened? After taking a decisive Game 1 victory by the score of 7-0, everyone's favorite scruffy bocce squad, If You Want My Bocce, went down hard in this past weekend's playoffs. 7-0 and 7-1.

I've spent the better part of the past 48 hours dissecting where I went wrong as captain. And I've figured it out. I'll come out stronger and more ready to lead next season. I'm proud of my squad. Even when we were down 6-0 in Game 3, I thought we might be able to pull it out. Then it was 6-1 and The Sweet Meats were going to be dead meat. But it wasn't meant to be.

Instead, The Sweet Meats showed the heart of champions and the eye of the tiger and they destroyed us. How do you lose the first game 7-0 and then come back and decimate? It was a thing of beauty.


Team Rod decided to go drown its misery in Grimaldi's pizza. By the time we arrived back to Floyd, the final that no one wanted was underway. Boccelism vs. ODB. Snooze.

Once again, Boccelism won. Again. 3 in a row. The Yankees this team is. A juggernaut. The cream of the crop.

Too bad for them that they are not universally loved and had to import non-bocce folks to root for them. They were sick of the booing that they had to endure during the last championship victory over Team Rod. Oh well, I'm sure they would choose to be feared rather than loved.

2006 was the year of the Boccelism. 2007 will be all Rod.

The would have been RVP if we had won - Young Turk.

Final Record: 8-2
Good but not good enough.

Also over the past week, we found out that many of the bocce squads out there read this blog. Join the fun. Leave comments. Don't lurk in the shadows anymore waiting to see what kind of barbs we might throw your way.

And for the record, Gettin' Hungry would like to let the Sweet Meats know that steak is not a sweet meat and that you should plan your merchandise accordingly.

The spring season is just around the corner. And it will be an exciting one. Downtrain Train will once again be pulling into Rod Station which is a great thing. We missed him. We also have other Rod inspired tricks up our collective sleeves, but you all will just have to wait and see. Now that we know that our blog is so well read, some secrets must be kept.

All Hail Rod