Winter 2009, Game 2: Joanie vs. Bocce Guevara

Your Joanies faced off against one of the dumber named teams in the league this past Sunday. Two problems with the name: First, Bocce does not rhyme with Che, nor does the "cc" simply replace a consanant sound in Che. These are the common key elements in bocce themed team names. See, Boccelism, Boccismo, If You Want My Bocce, and, of course, Joanie Loves Bocce. Second, its not funny or clever. Che Guevara's place in history is complex. To some he is lauded as a revolutionary. To others he's vilified as a ruthless strongman. Whether or not one approves of his ends, i.e. the throwing off of the American empirical stranglehold over the Cuban government, it is hard to approve of his means, e.g. death by firing squad for Batista supporters. This is hardly a proper figure to be honored with a bocce team name. Joanie and Chachi would be turning over in their graves. If they were dead. Which I bet they would wish they were if they were aware of the Bocce Guevara team name. Which they're not. Anyway, on to the recap.

The Joanies stunk it up.

Game 1: Bocce Guevara 7, Joanie 6. Danielle & Teresa at the north end, Eric and Hugh at the South. BG comes out with 6 straight points, before the gang starts fighting back. We tie it at 6, but can't get that last point.

Game 2: Joanie 7, BG 5. Kirstie & Abby at the north, Eric and the Fonz at the south. We fall behind right away again before coming back to take the game.

Game 3: BG 7, Joanie 2. Abby & Teresa at the north, Hugh and the Fonz at the south. Nothing much to be said here.

What bothered me about this loss is that everyone else on the team seemed to think that the other team got lucky breaks and that we weren't playing great, but we were battling. I did not see it that way. Bocce Guevara played a solid game, with the exception of one round that they kept trying to hit stuff and missing. We were lucky to win game 2. Even in rounds when we scored multiple points it seemed like it was more because of a lucky bounce than because anyone rolled a particularly good bocce. I played just as poorly as anyone else, with the exception of maybe 2 rolls that I was happy with. I think we need to recognize when we're playing poorly or we're not going to be able to improve.

Winter/Spring 2009 Seasons Begins

Today Joanie began what we hope will be another championship season. We kicked it off against Do These Droids Speak Bocce.

Game 1, Kirstie and Hugh played at the South end and Danielle and Teresa played at the North end. They got off to a 6-0 lead, then let Do These Droids back into it. With a 6-4 lead, Kirstie and Hugh finished it off and we won game won 7-4.

Game 2, Hugh and I played at the South end and Danielle and Teresa stayed on at the North end. Do These Droids started off against D&T with 3 points. Hugh and I gave them another. D&T took a point, then Hugh and I gave up another. With Joanie behind 5-1, D&T started the come back with 2 points. Hugh and I then scored another 3 to put us up 6-5. D&T finished them off to bring us the victory.

Joanie wins 7-4, 7-5. It was a nice start to the season.

We also heard a rumor from the ODB (who lost their first game) that the end of the season tournament would not include every team, so there's some incentive to having a winning record. We're on our way. Go Joanie!

Fall 2008 Playoffs

This post is a little late coming. In mid-December, Joanie went to the playoffs with a 8-2 record, in 2nd place in the Saturday division and bye in the first round of the playoffs. I couldn't be at that first playoff game, as it was the same day as the unveiling of my late grandmother's headstone. Joanie played without me, while I was with my family at a cemetery on Long Island. It was not a fun day for me. And in my absence, Joanie lost in 3 games. I won't say that we would have won if I was there. But we didn't win, and our season ended. We hope to build on the last two seasons in Winter/Spring 2009.