Bocce in Bensonhurst

Marc and the rest of the bocce folks have played bocce on outdoor courts many times over the past year or so. For various reasons, I've never been able to make it. Even though I had to leave a bit early from this outing, I still got a lot of playing time in.

Jim should really wear visors all the time.
The kid wearing red was a big fan of SHR and Beth. He implored them to roll well and gave them good advice like "Aim slow" or something like that.

We were having a bit of fun but nothing out of the ordinary. That is until three older gentleman asked if they could take us on. We said sure. They went to their storage space and put on their game wear. They dumped their own balls onto the court and then told us we could use ours if we wanted. Um, not after you just dumped yours on top of ours. I began to get worried.

From left to right: Grumpy guy who wanted to have nothing to do with us, Frank, and Lenny.
Marc went over the ground rules with our new pals. He was quite afraid that we were going to get hustled. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded getting hustled by a guy wearing a "Grandpa: An American Classic" t-shirt.
We had the Mets game on at both ends of the court.

They spotted us a 1-0 lead to make us feel good. Then they absolutely destroyed us by a score of 12-1. Ouch.
This shot might have been the only bad shot of the day by the old-timers. I wish that I had taken more movies but this will have to do. I like the grumpy guy's rolling style.

I also really like their pallino.

Frank helps Lenny with his balance as he measures the distance between two balls.

Frank (the one of the right) watches his protege roll. As we were choosing teams for the second game to mix things up after the first game drubbing, Frank made a beeline to SHR, pointed at her and said, "I'll take you."
I loved playing with those guys and really need to get back there soon to see what Frank and Lenny are up to.