About the Book
Within the pages of this book you will find a history of Bocce play, both ancient and modern. The construction of a court and the right equipment required is discussed, as well as numerous tips for playing and excelling at the sport. Official rules and regulations for everyday and championship play are included. This book is a valuable reference guide to resources in the United States and foreign countries for the sport of Bocce. The volume concludes with a photo section and miscellaneous treats from the author.
the travel guide of the Oregon Coast
the 1966 California official highway map
the texts of Bocce Balling on the West CoastAfter returning to my home and job at the end of January, I didn't play bocce until mid-April when Tristan returned from his new residence in Quincy, California. He visited to pick up things up and stayed for the Sea Otter Classic bicycle event. We played bocce late one night at the Custom House courts by the wharf. Tristan beat me and Alexandra. I realized it had been five years since the summer of 2006 when I first played bocce with Bill Workman late at night after working at and closing down the Central Avenue Bakery. He worked at John Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum on Cannery Row and lived out of his car always claiming that that night he was going to steal a paddle boat and sleep on the island in the middle of Lake El Estero. Green and red balls were locked in metal bins next to the courts and Bill somehow knew the code. One time we played with Tristan and Andrew and a man named Jeep who happened upon us in the middle of the night. Afterwards we took him out to Denny's and he refused to have us pay for his coffee, spoke with the manager, and hoped to never drink another cup of coffee that bad. It just tasted like Denny's coffee to me. It had been five years since I asked Carly on a bocce date at ten o'clock at night and we ended up at the top of all the best hotels.
That also meant it was seven years since I had graduated from high school and played bocce on my front lawn at my parents' house with the balls I was given as a present, seven years since I left that same set at the park and never saw them again, and seven years since my parents turned the 30 by 8 foot bocce trench I had dug in the back yard into a water feature.
Tristan and I eventually came to argue. He hadn't contributed to the book. I had fallen out of contact. That was all. It was more of a brief spat.
I played bocce again in June. I went to a Saturday afternoon party at my parents' house for my father's students. At the end, as we were leaving to return to Monterey, Chad and Carly asked if anyone wanted to play bocce in town and I said yes and it was agreed to meet at the Custom House courts by the wharf. They had to stop at Patrick's house first to get his bocce balls. I got a ride to my house in another car and got my bicycle. I played Chad, my dad's student, first to ten and I won. Then I played Carly, his girlfriend, talked about how five years ago I had a bocce first date with a girl named Carly, and won again. I felt ruthless. Chad told me about his late Spring trip to the Pacific Northwest with Patrick. They had a blast with the whole city of Vancouver when the hockey team won a game in the Stanley Cup finals; and they left before the riots that broke out when the team lost.
Alexandra bought me a bocce ball set off the internet for my birthday and we have played several times, and I hope to more frequently.
I also have looked up and found two books on bocce, one very helpful and thorough volume from the library—The Joy of Bocce by Mario Pagnoni—and one fascinating study in literary composition from Amazon—Rico Daniele's Bocce, A Sport for Everyone.
Five reviews exist for this book:
1.
This book is less than desirable. The print quality is poor, the diagrams are obvious cut-and-paste examples, and over 80 pages are no-value lists of Italian resources where Bocce information MIGHT be found, and poor quality photographs from a personal album. This is a very amateurish book and provides little value. I recommend Amazon drop it from the catalog.
No tree should have been cut down to print this. I wanted to know how to play bocce and how to build a court. This book did not satisfy my needs.
3.
I have to agree with Reader from Houston. This is the cheesiest book I've ever seen in print. It could only have been self-published. Over 50 pages of illegibly-reproduced random clippings and home album photos. Interspersed are about 30 pages of useful information about how to build a court and rules for playing the game. If you really need this information, the ... price tag is not too high. Other than that, it's a masterpiece of ...4.
If you purchase a Bocce set, it will surely come with instruction on how to play the game. Use those and don't waste your $14 dollars on this collection of photos of the author and his Bocce cronies.
5.
Reading "A Sport for Everyone" brought back memories of warm Sunday afternoons at my grandparents. After a big family dinner, both adults and kids would go out to the back yard to play Bocce, Just enough exercise to help digest. I haven't played in years, so when we built a vacation house, I ordered this book in hopes of putting in a Bocce court of my own. The chapter on building courts was very helpful and clear. The rest of the book deals with equipment and rules, all very useful and upbeat. I'm now the proud owener of both the book and a truly fine court. This is a book written with the enthusiasm of a Bocce zealot. Even though the pulication is technically a bit primative [sic], I hope it converts others over to a great "social" sport.
Mr. Daniele's abrupt and irreverent transitions through genres and media elicited the very responses that I wanted for my own narrative. This tone, however, does not seem at all deliberate; rather the choices seem to simply stem from the arbitrary need to give sequence to the various media found in a collection of scrapbooks, photo albums, and bocce archives. The implied presence of Daniele stands behind, or even within, these choices—he is each placement of newspaper clipping, collage, recipe, diagram, regulation, or other "miscellaneous treats from the author," as he calls them. And all that he chooses, writes, and is in the photos and text becomes a fascinating character. He remains infinitely sincere as he pops up into nearly every photo with his signature grin, neatly parted hair, green polo collar sticking out from his white Wonderful World of Bocce W.W.O.B.A. sweater, and bocce balls in hand.
"Who includes the 'O' from the 'of' in the abbreviation of their organization?" There is obviously a unique character in Rico Daniele, a man who self-published an "official W.W.O.B.A publication" through an organization that shares the same address as his own "Mom & Rico Daniele's Specialty Market" in Springfield, Massachusetts, and fills it with his own story of coming to America from Italy and sharing Bocce with Western Massachusetts and the greater New World.
I shall here present the content of Bocce A Sport for Everyone, for those who do not care to devour it themselves.
Pages 1-2: The History of Bocce, "An Ancient Game": "Bocce must have been part of the therapeutic advice given by the early Greek physicians Ipocrates and Galileo who indeed believed that the invigorating exercise provided by this game could have beneficial results. It is said that the early Romans were among the first to play the game, at times using coconuts brought back from Africa." It should be noted that Galileo was Italian and an astronomer. But that's not the important thing. The important thing is that he played bocce.
Page 3: The first U.S. Bocce League—Western Massachusetts, list of Presidents since 1932. 12th and 16th Vice Presidents (1988-1990, 1994): Rico Daniele.
Pages 4-5: Teams and clubs in the history of the league.
Pages 6-8: Newspaper clippings from the 1957 and 1933 and 1938 tournaments.
Page 9: the first W.W.O.B.A. team to enter international competition, Trump Plaza, Captain Rico Daniele.
Pages 10-14: SO YOU WANT TO BUILD YOUR OWN BOCCE COURT, including a "materials" section that quite resembles the expenses in Walden, "so that all the pecuniary outgoes, excepting for washing and mending, which for the most part were done out of the house, and their bills have not yet been received..."
Page 15: endorsement by Giuseppe Polimeni of Agenzia Consolare d'Italia, "representative of the Republic of Italy in Western Massacusetts"—"It gives me pleasure to endorse the efforts of Mr. Rico Daniele to promote the game of bocce throughout the United States."
Page 16: YOU'LL NEED THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT
Page 17: Contact information for bocce equipment retailers. Number 10 on the list is Mom & Rico/Daniele's Specialty Market/899 Main Street/Springfield, Massachusetts.
Pages 18-22: WHAT THE BOCCE PLAYER NEEDS TO KNOW, Physical Conditioning, Choosing the Right Techniques, the Puntata Method, the Volo Method, the Ace and Bank Shots, The Raffa shot. NOW LET'S PLAY BOCCE!
Pages 23-33: W.W.O.B.A.'S OFFICIAL 76 REGULATIONS FOR THE GAME OF BOCCE
Regulation number 76: "For information about bocce tournaments throughout the region, the country and the world, become a member of W.W.O.B.A. for just $19.00 and also get: / Free T-shirt, Hat or Insulated Cup / Free quarterly newsletter."
Page 34: "LET'S PLAY BOCCE" and W.W.O.B.A. logo
Pages 35-43: SPECIAL RULES FOR PLAYOFFS AND CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES, 6 SIMPLE RULES FOR THE GAME OF BOCCE, A Summary of the PUNTO, RAFFA, VOLO REGULATIONS of the Confederation Bouliste Internationale, and EXAMPLES OF THE REGULATIONS.
Pages 44-82: RESOURCE DIRECTORY
"Organizations that already include—or that we feel should include—as part of their activities range from informal clubs to extremely structured leagues and tournaments, depending on where you live. The following list, as complete as possible, will give you some suggestions who to contact in your area." —Page 58: Wonderful World of Bocce Association, 899 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103.
Pages 83-118: SOME GREAT MOMENTS, FACES AND PHOTOS OF BOCCE
Photographs and collages either taken by or including Rico Daniele and Bocce
Pages 119-124: TIMALLO DI BOCCE, Some Personal Thoughts
A sort of brief autobiography and statement of purpose, personally signed by Rico C. Daniele
Page 125: Newspaper clipping about Labor Day Bocce Tournament, 1993, including enlarged quote from Enrico Daniele, "We wanted to get it in here as a family thing. I'm trying to get bocce into schools to get kids interested."
Pages 126-127: Brackets for two 1993 tournaments.
Pages 128-135: List of good bocce players, first, by state, and by country
Page 136: Letter
Page 137: Introduction to the bocce characters, with the nine planets as the nine bocce balls
Pages 138-149: Ten Tasty Bocce Recipes. Bocce related dishes with "the bocce characters" hosting their description. The characters come from Daniele's realization that there are 9 planets and 9 bocce balls. The sun is the court; the pallino is Pluto; Uranus is cowboy with a mustache; Neptune is a crowned merman; Saturn is a sombreroed, similarly moustachioed Mexican; Jupiter is a blond hulahooping youngster; Mars has the Roman mohawk of Marvin the Martian; Mother Earth has a bun pinned with a stick and is smelling a flower; Venus has a bow in her hair; Mercury has a propellor hat and wields a bocce ball; and the sun brings us a recipe for Italian-American Bread.
150-151: More newspaper clippings.
152: Sample Bocce League Financial Report (Income: $5,852.00 - Expenses: $5,635 = $217.00)
153: Seven Steps to Stagnation, 14 Ways to an Unsuccessful Organization
154: Letter in Italian to "Gentilissimo Enrico" from the Mayor of Bracigliano, Province di Salerno, Italia
155-158: The Joy of Growing Up Italian, Author Unknown
159-163: Ackowledgments
164: Wonderful World of Bocce Association Membership form
165: Bocce is the Perfect Sport for You, a poem by John V. Tranghese
166: blank
167-194: more clippings, collages, premise for movie called Bocce Bella written in the margins of one clipping: "A little Irish girl Katie Fitzgerald grows up to become a bocce champion with Italian friends."
195-196: blank
the themes of Bocce Balling on the West Coast